President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi undertook a regional tour this week that began with Qatar and ended in Kuwait. Developments on the Palestinian front dominated the president’s agenda on the tour, with Qatar and Kuwait being among the most supportive Arab countries on the issue.
Egypt is garnering support for the position it shares with Jordan to decline the proposal made by US President Donald Trump for the two Arab countries, both of which have peace treaties with Israel, to receive over one million Palestinians, mostly from Gaza but also from the West Bank, either permanently or temporarily in order to depopulate the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Egypt is hoping to get the backing of the Gulf States at the international level in order to support the Egyptian and Jordanian push against the Trump proposal.
A diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Egypt was happy with the significant support it had received during the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Cairo last week and that it is currently working to expand the circle of that support in the face of the pressure that Washington is exercising to get the Trump proposal adopted.
Al-Sisi discussed the development of joint Egyptian-Qatari mediation to restart the ceasefire in the Israeli war on Gaza and to give the Gazans prompt access to desperately needed humanitarian aid during his visit to Qatar. This new deal would allow for the return of 10 Israeli hostages and the handover of five bodies of Israelis who had been held in Gaza. The handover is proposed to be executed over four weeks. In return, Gaza would get a 70-day ceasefire and prompt access to desperately needed humanitarian aid.
A source close to the mediation said that Egypt and Qatar are hopeful that a ceasefire, even if “not a permanent one”, is in the works. “It is in the works, but not exactly in the offing,” he added.
He explained that Hamas and Israel are taking widely diverging positions on the issue of the militant capacity of Hamas and other Palestinian factions. “We are working with the Qataris to find a formula whereby Hamas places its arsenal under Arab supervision in order to accommodate the Israeli demand, which is fully supported by the US, to strip Hamas and other factions of their arms,” he said.
He added that Egypt and Qatar are trying to work out an alternative path whereby the 10 Israeli hostages will be released at once, and the five bodies of dead hostages handed over, also at once, in order to get the ceasefire restarted and to delay talks about the militant capacity of Hamas and other resistance groups.
Up until Tuesday afternoon, a source close to Hamas said that the Islamic resistance movement was not willing to discuss demilitarisation at all.
According to the same source, it is Cairo’s view that the Palestinian cause is going through one of its toughest phases with the genocidal war on Gaza, the displacement plans for the Palestinians, both from Gaza and the West Bank, and the push to dismantle UNRWA, the international organisation that carries the banner of Palestinian rights, including the right of return for Palestinian refugees and the right of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories to access basic rights including food, healthcare, and education.
The source said that the “intervention” of some Arab Gulf states, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia, with the US had helped to persuade Washington to agree to a Hamas demand that it had previously declined to offer the Islamic Resistance Movement “some sort of guarantees that Israel will not violate the ceasefire once it gets the hostages and the bodies.”
Meanwhile, the diplomatic source said that while he was in Kuwait on the second leg of his tour Al-Sisi was scheduled to discuss “ideas” to improve the performance of both the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) in order to help push for the PLO to act as the umbrella of all the Palestinian factions and for the PA to regain its international status.
Al-Sisi’s visit to Doha came less than two weeks after the Israeli press had published allegations of a Qatari attempt to dissuade the Israeli mediators from working along with Egypt’s attempt to strike a ceasefire. Qatar had openly declined any involvement in any anti-Egyptian move.
Upon his arrival in Doha, President Al-Sisi was received by Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, with an official reception ceremony.
Ambassador Mohamed Al-Shennawi, spokesman of the Egyptian presidency, said Al-Sisi and Tamim chaired an expanded meeting that included the delegations of the two countries, followed by a tête-à-tête.
Tamim welcomed Al-Sisi’s visit and affirmed that it represented the culmination of the growing momentum in relations between the two brotherly countries.
President Al-Sisi expressed his appreciation for the warm welcome and generous hospitality, stressing the importance of strengthening cooperation between the two countries.
Meanwhile, upon his arrival to Kuwait, Al-Sisi was received by Emir Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabbah, Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and Acting Prime Minister Sheikh Fahd Youssef Al-Sabah.
A number of Kuwaiti jet fighters escorted the presidential flight as it landed in Kuwait, in a show of exceptional hospitality.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 17 April, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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