President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi was in Évian-les-Bains in France on Monday and Tuesday this week to participate, as a partner, in the 52nd G7 Summit held under the French presidency.
Egypt’s presence at the summit provided room for direct dialogue with other world leaders, especially following this week’s conclusion of the US-Iran agreement. The war in the Middle East and its repercussions on energy and supply chains was one of the main topics discussed during the summit.
Egypt’s attendance at the summit coincided with the transition of the G7 presidency from France to the US, offering Egypt an opportunity to engage with the European and US leaderships. The presidency rotates annually among G7 member states.
Observers regard Egypt’s participation at the G7 Summit for the second time as an acknowledgment of Cairo’s influential role in the region and its sustained contribution to global dialogue and regional stability.
Egypt’s first attendance as a partner at a G7 summit was in the French city of Biarritz in August 2019 during Egypt’s presidency of the African Union (AU).
In another development this week, Al-Sisi and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan welcomed the US-Iran agreement to end the war in the Middle East during a one-day visit of the Emirati leader to Cairo on Monday.
Al-Sisi re-emphasised Egypt’s firm support for the sovereignty, territorial integrity, security, and well-being of the UAE’s people, as well as for stability and security in the region.
Egypt has repeatedly voiced its support for the UAE and other Gulf and Arab countries subjected to Iranian attacks during the US-Iran war, describing them as a violation of international law.
The US-Iranian agreement, announced hours before Bin Zayed’s visit to Cairo, is expected to pave the way for a broader de-escalation, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and renewed negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme.
Egypt welcomed the agreement, saying it was an important turning point in regaining peace and stability on the regional as well as the international levels.
“Egypt reasserts its firm stand that supports peaceful solutions and settling conflicts via diplomatic means. Negotiation is the main tool to maintain peace and security in a way that conforms to the UN Charter and international law and contributes to de-escalating tensions, settling conflicts, and creating a better environment for cooperation, development, and achieving peace and stability in the region,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Political commentator Abdallah Al-Senawi said that the agreement does not necessarily mean the end of war or sustainable peace in one of the most economically and strategically sensitive areas in the world, however.
He said that, instead, it represents a return to the negotiating table under fire.
“Ending the war will depend on settling pending issues within 60 days, particularly the Iranian nuclear file,” he said.
Ayman Zeinaddin, a former diplomat, said that the agreement meets Iran’s first and most important target — the recognition of the Iranian regime that the US and others have tried to topple since the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
However, Iran also has other objectives, he said, “namely the lifting of the sanctions, the release of its frozen assets, and allowing it to move more freely on an international level. Above all, it will not give up its right to establish a nuclear programme for peaceful purposes.”
Tehran will not give up the two trump cards that have helped it to defend itself against the US and Israeli aggression, namely its missile programme and its relationship with its allies, he added.
Iran announced that the agreement with the US had put an “immediate end” to the war.
“A permanent and immediate end to the war has been declared on all fronts, including Lebanon,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said in televised comments immediately after its announcement.
He said that Tehran had “won great victories” in the war.
“The enemy that attacked us to carry out its evil aims was defeated, and the Islamic Republic of Iran won great victories in the war,” Gharibabadi said, adding that his country would now hold talks over a period of two months to seek a “final agreement”.
Iran and the US announced the reaching of a deal to end the war in the Middle East on all fronts including Lebanon and reopen the Strait of Hormuz on Monday. However, no details were disclosed on thorny questions such as Tehran’s nuclear programme.
The agreement is scheduled to be signed on 19 June in Switzerland.
The US is supposed to release $12 billion in frozen assets to Iran before the start of the final negotiations, Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported.
Meanwhile, a quadrilateral mechanism meeting comprising Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, is due to meet later this month in Cairo in order to continue consultations between the four states and strengthen efforts to de-escalate regional tensions.
It is expected to push for resolving the remaining differences between the US and Iran before the reaching of the final agreement.
One of the challenges that the 60-day negotiation period will face is Israeli intervention, Al-Senawi noted.
“Whenever there is a window for a peaceful solution, Israel may try to close it. It is banking on its influence within the US Republican Party and within the Trump administration to do so,” he said.
With de-escalation and peace as their main aims, Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and his Pakistani counterpart Mohamed Ishaq Dar exchanged several phone calls in the few days before reaching the agreement, during which they stressed the importance of continued joint efforts to prioritise diplomatic solutions to prevent the expansion of the conflict and contain the current escalation.
They also reviewed preparations for the meeting of the quadrilateral mechanism.
The four countries have been working together in the mechanism that aims to support the US-Iran negotiating track, underlining the importance of sustained political and diplomatic efforts to contain escalation in the region and secure an end to the conflict.
They held their first meeting in Riyadh on 20 March, followed by a second meeting in Pakistan on 29 March. The third meeting took place in the Turkish city of Antalya on 17 April on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 18 June, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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