Shoukry, who led the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2014 to 2024, added that this firm position helped push such ideas off the regional and international agenda.
Speaking in an interview with the television programme Al-Soura, hosted by Lamis El-Hadidy on Al-Nahar TV and aired on Tuesday evening, Shoukry noted that he had not seen anything explicit on the matter.
“There may have been some hints,” he said, “but I do not believe that at any time they amounted to proposals with any real substance, nor were they something that could be accepted at any stage.”
Egypt’s rejection of displacement is rooted in long-standing foreign policy principles that uphold core national positions while seeking to avoid confrontation through dialogue, persuasion, and the use of established strategic relationships to build shared understanding, the former foreign minister stated.
Shoukry, who now heads the House of Representatives’ Foreign Relations Committee, said the idea of displacing Palestinians has steadily lost traction. He noted that official US statements indicate there is no American proposal pursuing such an approach.
This shift, he added, reflects sustained opposition from Egypt and other Arab and Islamic states.
Shoukry said the two-state solution remains valid for Palestinians, Egypt, the Arab and Islamic worlds, and the wider international community, despite growing challenges.
He pointed to Israel’s declared rejection of the two-state framework and said Washington’s current position does not support it. However, he stressed that this stance runs counter to the prevailing international consensus, which views the two-state solution as the only viable path to ending the conflict.
He argued that the scale of the challenge reinforces, rather than weakens, the need to continue firmly advocating for the two-state solution, whether through Egypt’s relations with the United States, European and international partners, or through coordinated Arab and Islamic efforts to reaffirm it as the sole basis for peace.
On Gaza governance, Shoukry urged caution in assessing the executive body of the Peace Council for Gaza before it begins work and carries out its mandate. This includes reconstruction, addressing urgent humanitarian needs, and restoring essential services in the strip.
Turning to the Nile dispute, Shoukry said US mediation had previously played a decisive role in negotiations with Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam during President Donald Trump’s first term. These talks resulted in a draft legally binding agreement that protected Egypt’s water interests while accommodating Ethiopia’s development goals.
Ethiopia later declined to sign the agreement, he said.
Despite the dam’s completion, Shoukry warned that there is still no legally binding framework governing its operation or the management of drought and prolonged drought, leaving Egypt without firm guarantees for its water security.
He said Washington could again act as mediator or arbiter if it adopts a neutral and objective stance, noting that Trump’s recent letter to President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi reaffirmed key principles of international law. These include opposition to unilateral actions on international waterways and recognition of the Nile’s importance to Egypt.
Shoukry added that Egypt has the right to seek compensation if it suffers harm as a result of the dam, but said enforcement remains a major challenge under international law.
He noted that the UN Security Council, acting under Chapter VII, has the authority to compel compensation or enforce a legally binding agreement, but said such outcomes depend on political alignments among major powers and the council’s internal dynamics.
Shoukry’s remarks came as Trump criticized Washington’s past role in what he described as “financing” the Dam, while underscoring the Nile River’s vital importance to Egypt.
Speaking on Tuesday at a White House press conference, Trump said the dam had brought Egypt and Ethiopia to the brink of conflict before US intervention helped ease tensions. However, he added that the issue still required further work.
He questioned how the project was allowed to proceed, linked it directly to Egypt’s water security and economy, and said Cairo depends on the Nile for nearly all aspects of life, including tourism.
US-sponsored talks in 2020 failed to produce a legally binding agreement, leaving the dispute in diplomatic deadlock for years, even as the roughly $4 billion dam became fully operational.
Egypt, which relies on the Nile for almost all of its freshwater, has repeatedly warned that any reduction in the river’s flow poses an existential threat.
In a letter to El-Sisi on Friday, Trump expressed readiness “to restart US mediation between Egypt and Ethiopia to responsibly resolve the question of ‘the Nile water sharing’ once and for all.”
In unusually direct language for presidential correspondence, Trump wrote that the United States “affirms that no state in this region should unilaterally control the precious resources of the Nile, and disadvantage its neighbours in the process.”
Trump said that with “fair and transparent negotiations” and strong technical expertise, the parties could reach a lasting agreement that guarantees predictable water releases during droughts and prolonged dry periods for Egypt and Sudan, while enabling Ethiopia to generate “very substantial amounts of electricity,” some of which could potentially be provided or sold to Egypt and Sudan.
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