In key role. Egypt turns out to be one of the main mediators between Israel and Hamas. While Washington remains withdrawn from international negotiations, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is keen to reconnect with his historic regional role. Already in 2014, a ceasefire was put in place at the initiative of Cairo, after the war between the Hebrew state and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, which borders Egypt. Since the start of the new conflict, which entered its second week on Monday, Israeli shelling and rocket fire have killed at least 222 people, most of them Palestinians.
This new conflagration brought Cairo back to the heart of the diplomatic game, while it created embarrassment among Arab countries, especially in the Gulf, having recently normalized their relations with the Hebrew state. The United States, which has so far kept a low profile, has called on Cairo and other Arab allies, including Tunis and Doha, to get involved in securing a ceasefire. “In a region where the ‘normalization states’ are expanding their relationship with Israel, Egypt […] it is in its interest to use its geographical proximity to Gaza as a diplomatic lever, ”Tareq Baconi, expert from the Crisis Group think tank, told Agence France-Presse.
Meeting between Abdel Fattah al-Sissi and Emmanuel Macron
On Monday, May 17, 2021, President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi took stock of these mediation efforts with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, during a meeting at the Elysee Palace. Concretely, an Egyptian delegation is on the ground in Israel and in the Palestinian territories to encourage a ceasefire. “Composed of intelligence officials”, it has been there “for several days,” said Khaled Okasha, member of the Egyptian High Council for Counterterrorism. The director of the Egyptian Center for Strategic Studies, a think tank linked to the state, said he was confident about the outcome of the initiative.
For Michael Hanna, an expert at the Century Foundation New York think tank, “Egypt must be involved. There is no other way ”. Israel has maintained a sea and land blockade on Gaza since Hamas took control in 2007 of this coastal strip where some two million people are crowded. The Rafah border crossing point, on the Egyptian border, is its only opening to the world that is not controlled by Israel. While the Egyptian media used to designate the enclave as a “terrorist hotbed”, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi last week ordered the crossing to open to allow Gaza wounded to be treated in Egyptian hospitals. , and to get medical help. “This is an opportunity to say, not only to the United States, but to other countries in the region, that Egypt remains important,” said Michael Hanna, before adding: “A ceasefire will pass through Cairo. ”
Popular support for the Palestinians in Egypt, he said, encouraged Cairo to take a “firmer, more outspoken” line against Israel, despite the 1979 peace treaty. In a speech to the UN Security Council, the minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Choukri said, addressed to Israel, that “concessions” should “be made”. But “it’s a strange dynamic […], the military leaders have a deep lack of confidence in Israel but, at the same time, they collaborate with them ”, moderates Michael Hanna. Tareq Baconi is also nuanced, believing that Cairo does not “have enough weight over Israel”. “The relationship is an alliance in which Israel defines the strategic contours,” he said. He added that the Egyptian president “does not necessarily see Hamas in the same light”.
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