Naftali Bennett visited Egypt: first visit by Israeli prime minister in 10 years

Egypt, the most populous Arab country and the first to sign a peace agreement with Israel, received the Israeli Prime Minister on Monday Naftali Bennett, something that hadn’t happened since 2011.

With borders to the east with the Gaza Strip and Israel, Egypt mediated in May to end the blitzkrieg between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas, which has controlled this Palestinian enclave since 2007.

Linked to Israel by a peace treaty since 1979, Egypt regularly hosts Hamas, as well as its rival, the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abas, while maintaining diplomatic, trade and security relations with Israel.

A few days after receiving the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abas, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al Sisi will meet Bennett, resuming frequent meetings until the 2011 popular revolt in Egypt and non-existent since then.

The two gathered in Sharm el-Sheikh on the Red Sea on “efforts to relaunch the peace process” between Israelis and Palestinians, presidential spokesman Basam Radi said in a statement..

On Sunday, when he offered to “improve” the living conditions of Gazans in exchange for a commitment to “calm” Hamas, the head of Israeli diplomacy, Yair Lapid, again recalled “the vital importance of Egypt “.

This project, he stressed, “will not see the light of day without the support and participation of Egyptian partners and their ability to engage in dialogue with all parties concerned”.

According to Nael Shama, an Egyptian specialist in foreign policy, Bennett’s visit represents an “important step in view of the development of economic and security relations” between the two countries and their “common concern” about Gaza, but also for Egypt’s plan to “reactivate political talks between Israel and the United States. Palestinian Authority ”.

Cooperation in Sinai

In 2019, on the American channel SCSSisi had admitted that his army was operating alongside Israel against “terrorists” in north Sinai (east), calling this cooperation “the closest” that has ever existed between the two neighbors.

Under the peace treaty that ended the state of war between the two countries, Egypt regained sovereignty over the Sinai Peninsula occupied by Israel since 1967, but on condition of demilitarizing the area.

Yet since 2013, he has faced an insurgency led by a branch of the jihadist group Islamic State (IS).

The two countries too have developed their links in the field of energy, a strategic stake in the Eastern Mediterranean, and since 2020, Egypt has received natural gas from Israel to liquefy it and re-export it to Europe, an agreement valued at 13.3 billion euros (15.7 billion of dollars).

The last meeting between an Egyptian president and an Israeli prime minister – who holds power in Israel – dates back to January 2011. The late Hosni Mubarak received then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A few days later, Mubarak was overthrown by a popular revolt, followed two years later by the overthrow of his successor Mohamed Mursi and the seizure of power by Sisi.

(With information from AFP)

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