Egypt Foreign Minister Visits Two States

Sameh Hassan Shoukry is an Egyptian career diplomat who had ostensibly retired until he was named Foreign Minister of Egypt on 17 June 2014. Previously, Shoukry served as the Ambassador of Egypt to the United States from 2008 to 2012. Egypt’s foreign minister has paid a rare visit to Israel, offering his country’s help to revive peace talks with the Palestinians. Sameh Shoukry called for a two-state solution, but said conditions for achieving it were deteriorating.

His trip is seen as a sign of strengthened ties between two countries sharing deep concerns over regional unrest. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he welcomes Egypt’s efforts.

The last round of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians came to an end amid acrimony in April 2014.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry’s visit to Israel on Sunday symbolizes one of Benjamin Netanyahu’s main achievements as prime minister in recent years. Netanyahu has managed to preserve Israel's peace agreement with Egypt despite the revolution there in 2011 and the subsequent ascension to power of the Muslim Brotherhood, and he has succeeded in forging dramatically closer bilateral ties since the 2013 military coup that brought Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi to power.

 Shoukry’s very public and well-publicized visit, nine years after his predecessor, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, was here for the last time, is a diplomatic achievement in and of itself. Over the last two years, the Egyptian and Israeli leaderships have been in regular contact. There have been frequent phone calls between Netanyahu and Sissi, trips between Jerusalem and Cairo by Israeli and Egyptian envoys, and more. But until today, all this was kept at a low profile at best, and in many cases completely secret.

Egypt placed itself firmly in the middle of the diplomatic process between Israel and the Palestinians on Sunday, as Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry arrived in Jerusalem and said before meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the Egyptian leadership is “serious” in its determination to “provide all possible forms of support” toward achieving the goal of a two-state solution.

Netanyahu greeted his guest by saying that the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty signed 37 years ago, followed by the Jordanian-Israeli accord in 1994, have been the cornerstones of stability in the region and “are critical assets for our countries.” He once again called on the Palestinians to enter direct negotiations, saying that they should follow the “courageous example of Egypt and Jordan.

This is the only way we can address all the outstanding problems between us, and turn the vision of peace based on two states for two peoples into a reality.”

According to Israeli diplomatic officials, Netanyahu raised with Shoukry the fate of the two Israelis missing in Gaza, as well as the bodies of the two soldiers from the 2014 Operation Protective Edge being held by Hamas, and requested Egypt’s help in gaining their return. The sources said that Shoukry responded positively to the request.

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