President Al-Sisi has clearly managed to restore Egypt’s position as an influential regional power despite the difficulties.
This is the president’s second participation in a G-7 Summit, the first having been in the 2019 summit in the French city of Biarritz, during Egypt’s presidency of the African Union (AU). But the present occasion – also hosted by France – is taking place at a far more critical time. Along with leaders of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, Al-Sisi shouldered the responsibility of explaining the region’s aspirations for a stable and peaceful future that would ensure the containment of all volatile fronts, and not just the devastating war that broke out between the US and Iran on 28 February.
The G-7 Summit was held hardly a day after the announcement that the long-awaited “memorandum of understanding” between the United States and Iran was finally concluded, raising hopes that the four-month war between them would come to an end. Along with Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, Egypt’s role was key in reaching this deal, which had seemed elusive and nearly impossible to finalise as both sides fought hard to appear victorious following an unnecessary war that choked regional and world economies.
The difficulty in reaching the deal due to the deep mistrust between the two sides, and obvious efforts by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to block every opportunity for an agreement up until the final hours, will keep the world on edge until the actual signing on Friday, 19 June, in Geneva, Switzerland. Although the joint US-Israeli war on Iran was launched without the approval of any world institution such as the United Nations, or even the participation of well-known US-led alliances like NATO, the world breathed a sigh of relief after both sides confirmed they were on board for signing it.
Considering domestic pressures in both the United States and Iran, and efforts by hardliners on both sides to fail the deal, the leaders of both countries are probably tightlipped regarding the exact details so that each side can present it as a victory. Yet, world opposition to the US-Israeli war on Iran has not prevented the remaining G-7 leaders, as well as key Middle East US allies, from expressing their readiness to help in every way possible to build on the agreement, and the hope that it will be a first step towards restoring regional stability.
The message that Al-Sisi delivered in his talks with G-7 leaders, as well as in his summit with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, is the same once he has communicated since the region caught fire following the 7 October attack carried out by Hamas, and the genocidal war that Israel launched in retaliation for two whole years, killing over 73,000 people. The strong Egyptian belief and guiding principle has been that wars and bloodshed can never be the path to solving deeply rooted disputes. War, loss of innocent lives and massive destruction can only make matters worse, complicating efforts to resolve disputes.
Backed by all key regional countries, this Egyptian vision was not shared by the most extremist government in Israel’s history. Netanyahu insisted that only a series of endless wars could end threats to Israel’s security, and that attacking Hamas in Gaza, killing tens of thousands of Palestinians and pushing hard for the displacement of its 2.4 million people was not enough. The failure of Netanyahu’s government to prevent the 7 October, 2023 attacks and his personal obsession with maintaining the image of the most powerful and longest serving Israeli prime minister convinced him that Israel should launch wars on every possible front, culminating with Iran, which he accused of backing several groups that identify as resistance against Israel, whether in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen or Iraq.
After persuading the US president of an illusionary, Venezuela-style plan to topple the Iranian regime within days, Netanyahu pushed the entire world into one of the most costly wars to the world economy, surpassing the crisis of the 1973 War, and the more recent war between Russia and Ukraine. Netanyahu’s plan was a drastic failure, and Iran defied expectations by fighting back on several fronts, inflicting damage on the US and world economies by blocking the vital Strait of Hormuz through which 20 per cent of the world’s oil and gas passes. Lacking the military capabilities to stand up to the world’s superpower, Iran resorted to attacking US interests in the region, topped by allies in the Arab Gulf.
Facing endless nightmare scenarios in the case of the US-Israeli war continuing, those same Arab Gulf countries – along with Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey – were as keen as anyone on ending the war. As delegations from Iran and the US were heading to Geneva, there was no doubt that the key spoiler to all effort to bring peace to the region, Netanyahu, would not cease his efforts to fail the agreement. Hardly 24 hours before the expected declaration of the deal Netanyahu ordered his army to attack Beirut again, defying even the wishes of his boss in the war against Iran, Trump. This was the second time Netanyahu thought to derail the deal by escalating attacks in Lebanon and occupying more of its territory, forcing Trump to remind him that he was the only remaining supporter of his government worldwide and that he had to listen to his orders.
Al-Sisi’s clear message to Trump and other G-7 leaders was that peace in the region must be comprehensive, covering not only Iran, but also Lebanon and Gaza. It is impossible to imagine or expect true stability if Netanyahu boasts of his intention to continue occupying most of Gaza’s territory, squeezing its entire population in less than 30 per cent of its already very small area, and disregarding the Sharm El-Sheikh agreement sponsored by the US president less than a year ago, known as Trump’s 20-point plan. Similarly, the region cannot see stability or a sense of hope that peace if Israel continues to occupy Lebanese territory and insists that it will maintain a free hand in carrying out military action in response to any perceived threat to its security.
Peace in the region will only be established on the basis of justice, international law and respect for the basic rights of its peoples, topped by the right of self-determination and ending the illegal occupation of Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian territories. Trump truly has a chance to be forge a peacemaker’s legacy, and even to deserve a Nobel Peace Prize. Yet, this will certainly be impossible to achieve if he failed to stop Israel from acting as the bully, falsely believing that military might alone will bring the region’s old populations and civilisations into submission.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 18 June, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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