Egyptian sources: Meeting with Netanyahu has no justification in the current circumstances.
While US officials are trying to arrange a trilateral meeting between US President Donald Trump, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Netanyahu ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned visit to the country at the end of this month, Qatari newspaper Al Arabi Al-Jadeed reported that decision-making circles in Cairo believe that a meeting between Sisi and Netanyahu is “not appropriate and justifiable” under the current circumstances.
According to an Egyptian source, this assessment is not only due to the dire humanitarian and security situation in Gaza and the Israeli regime’s continued efforts to impose new realities on the ground, but also to Tel Aviv’s behavior along the common border with Egypt and the regime’s military control over the Rafah crossing and the Philadelphia (Salah al-Din) axis, an action that Cairo considers a violation of existing agreements and a weakening of its historical role in managing the crossings.
The Egyptian source emphasized that the government of the country is currently particularly sensitive to any political action that could lead to Netanyahu’s legitimacy, especially at a time when international criticism of his performance in the Gaza war has increased. Netanyahu is also trying to use any possible meeting to present it as a political achievement and cover up his past.
He noted that Cairo will only be willing to consider the plan for a trilateral meeting if specific conditions are met, including the complete withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Philadelphia axis, the return of the security situation to that before the Gaza war, the restoration of a minimum level of political and security trust, and Netanyahu’s formal approval of the gas agreement with Egypt.
According to him, this agreement can provide the necessary political justification for any possible meeting, and at the same time, it must be accompanied by a clear perspective on consolidating the ceasefire and starting a new political process in Gaza so that such a meeting is not seen as a unilateral concession for Tel Aviv.