Planned talks in Cairo with French, German foreign ministers to address Israel-Palestine conflict

Plans are underway for foreign ministers from Egypt, Jordan, France and Germany to convene with their counterparts from Israel and the Palestinian Authority in Cairo this December to discuss moving forward on stalled negotiations for a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, Egyptian and European diplomatic sources have told Mada Masr.

While plans for the meeting have been in the works for months, a number of Western diplomatic sources working in Cairo told Mada Masr that Egypt is intensifying its efforts to revive Palestinian-Israeli negotiations based on willingness shown by the PA to reengage, but also as a way for Cairo to reassert itself as the principal regional mediator in the so-called peace process.

According to the sources, the meeting is to be held sometime before December 25, and is to follow an official visit to Cairo from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is to hold talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on restarting Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. The Egyptian diplomatic source told Mada Masr that the exact date of Netanyahu's visit is yet to be decided. Though the Israeli prime minister has paid three visits to Cairo over the past five years, none has been officially announced.  

The foreign ministers from Egypt, Jordan, Germany and France will likely hold initial talks on their own, both sources said, followed by separate meetings with their Palestinian and Israeli counterparts.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas expressed his preliminary support for beginning indirect talks with Israel at a meeting with Sisi in Cairo two weeks ago, according to the Egyptian source.

Egypt has historically been the main interlocutor with Israel over the past 40 years, ever since it became the first Arab country to establish formal diplomatic ties with Israel following the 1979 Camp David Accords. Over the last decade, Egypt’s influence in the region has waned, with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia emerging as top regional power brokers. The UAE’s decision to normalize relations with Israel, followed by Bahrain and Sudan — with the blessing of Saudi Arabia — risks further marginalizing Cairo’s influence in the region. 

"When Sudan, Israel, and the US announced the beginning of a normalization process in October, an Egyptian official with knowledge of happenings in government told Mada Masr that Egypt is “extremely disturbed about the second wave of normalization” following Israel’s normalization agreements with the UAE and Bahrain in the last two months."

In addition to trying to reassert itself as a regional mediator, Egypt is also trying to find relevant focal points to establish a relationship with the incoming administration of President-Elect Joe Biden, the Western diplomatic sources said. 

Biden is a vocal supporter of Arab-Israeli normalization. After the Israel-UAE normalization agreement was announced in August, Biden welcomed it in a post on Medium as “a historic step.” Meanwhile, just before the election, Biden’s nominee for secretary of state, Antony Blinken, told the Jewish Insider that a Biden administration would try to continue pursuing normalization between Israel and Arab states. 

Cairo is also concerned about the possibility of increased scrutiny regarding Egypt’s human rights record on the part of the Biden administration, according to the Western diplomatic sources. Biden has criticized the cosy relationship between Sisi and outgoing US President Donald Trump. While Trump referred to Sisi as his favorite dictator in September 2019, Biden took the opportunity to distance himself from the favoritism this July, following the release of dual Egyptian-American citizen Mohamed Amashah after over a year in prison. Biden tweeted: “Mohamed Amashah is finally home after 486 days in Egyptian prison for holding a protest sign. Arresting, torturing, and exiling activists like Sarah Hegazy and Mohamed Soltan or threatening their families is unacceptable. No more blank checks for Trump’s "favorite dictator.”