Egypt wants to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process

Egypt’s foreign minister made a surprise visit to Israel on Sunday, the first official trip in nearly a decade. The gesture reflects Cairo’s desire to reassert itself as a regional broker by attempting to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

 

For years, the two countries have remained discreet about their close military ties to avoid aggravating public opinion in Egypt, which opposes normalized relations despite a 37-year-old peace treaty.

 

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said the trip reflects Cario’s  “long-standing responsibility” to promoting a two-state solution, and cautioned Israelis that their 49-year-old military occupation of the West Bank is “neither stable nor sustainable.’’

 

“Ever since the cessation of negotiations between the Palestinian and Israeli sides in April 2014, the situation on the ground has been in constant deterioration,’’ he said before a work meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “It is no longer acceptable to claim that the status quo is the most that we can achieve.’’

 

Shoukry’s visit comes a week after he met with Palestinian leadership in the West Bank city of Ramallah, and nearly two months after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi made a public appeal to Israelis on the peace process. Sisi promised warmer bilateral ties if progress was made on restarting peace talks that would establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

 

The summit provided some positive optics for  Netanyahu, whose right-wing administration has faced growing criticism from Europe and the United States over the stalled peace negotiations and Israel’s continued expansion of settlements in the West Bank.

 

Netanyahu vehemently rejected a French-sponsored Middle East peace initiative launched in June as an undesired intervention. He has instead talked about pursing an Israeli Palestinian peace through regional agreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

 

Welcoming greater Egyptian involvement, Netanyahu said that strong Israeli-Egyptian ties are “cornerstones” of “a broader regional peace and a broader stability we hope to achieve.’’

 

The Palestinian Authority has encouraged the Egyptians to help broker confidence-building measures, said an official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

 

After years of domestic upheaval in Egypt following the 2011 “Arab Spring,” Sisi is trying to reestablish the mediating role that former President Hosni Mubarak once played before he was forced to resign, analysts said.

 

Read More: Egypt wants to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process – LA Times