CAIRO — Two non-official visits by Egyptians to war-torn Syria within less than two weeks have sparked speculation that a rapprochement between Cairo and Damascus might be in the works. An Egyptian talk show host and a production crew landed Jan. 7 in Aleppo, while on Jan. 19 members of the Egyptian Engineers Syndicate, led by syndicate head Tareq al-Nabarawy, arrived in Damascus at the invitation of Nabarawy's counterpart, Ghiyath al-Qutaini.

The media visit was announced when Youssef al-Hosiny, host of Bitawqit al-Qahira (Cairo Time) on the satellite station ONTV, tweeted, “I am on my way to the airport, flying to Syria, the eagle of the East, to learn and report what happened to the free Aleppo, and Damascus, the Pearl. I’ll be back, God willing, to Cairo, with a different and hard-hitting episode.”

Ibrahim Gad, a member of the production team, told the Huffington Post’s Arabic edition Jan. 10 that only the show's content production team accompanied Hosiny and that the trip had been arranged in coordination with Egyptian authorities. The team met with Egypt’s charge d’affaires in Syria, Mohamed Tharwat.

A source at ONTV told Al-Monitor that the purpose of the visit was to record the destruction of Aleppo and the prevailing atmosphere. The source said the timing of the visit — after government forces and their allies took full control of Aleppo — was merely coincidental, not arranged by the TV station or Hosiny to tout President Bashar al-Assad's victory.