President Abdel Fattah El Sisi stressed in an interview with the Washington Post that his goal is establishing a powerful State with modern infrastructure and fast-growing economy.

The Washington Post's journalist David Ignatius said I interviewed President Abdel Fatah El Sisi for an hour.

During the interview, Sisi talked about reforming Egypt, noting that subsidies and bureaucracy had blocked previous Egyptian leaders, Ignatius said.

Sisi said his goal is a "competent and capable country" with a modern infrastructure, faster economic growth and, eventually, broader human rights. He said Egypt is still dizzy from the 2011 revolution that toppled president Hosni Mubarak.

"A country like Egypt needs stability, it needs security," he said. He warned that "collapse of the State" could turn Egypt into a nation of refugees like nearby Syria.

When asked why Egypt has not been like India or Brazil in terms of rapid economic development and progress in democracy and human rights, Sisi answered that a country like India went through decades of political stability to build on, while his reform efforts are only two years old.

Sisi expressed frustration with the State subsidies that economists, for decades, have criticized.

He said Egypt has seven million public sector employees performing work that can be done by just one million. The public sector salaries have exceeded a double since the 2011 revolution which demanded social justice.

Critics focus mainly on Egypt’s human rights record, Sisi said, adding that he is preoccupied with jobs, food and housing.

You will not be fair with me or with Egypt's conditions if you keep looking at us through an American perspective, Sisi said.