Abdel Fattah el-Sisi comes with another surprise

 Abdel Fattah  el-Sisi comes with another surprise

Dr. Jassim Taqui

Islamabad, July 10, 2016- History is in the making in the Middle East. The Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has sent his Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry to Israel to hold talks with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the basis of the two-state solution. It is the first visit by top Egyptian diplomat in 9 years.

Last month, Shoukry  visited the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank to urge the Palestinian to unify themselves in one delegation to hold direct talks with Israel.

Most probably, the visit will also pave the way to a summit meeting between el-Sisi and Netanyahu at Cairo to put a framework for the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.

The visit should be viewed as a follow-up to the el-Sisi’s  regional peace initiative last May. The initiative is based on the 2002 Arab peace offer, which promised Arab collective recognition of Israel provided it surrendered all Arab land seized in 1967 including East Jerusalem. El-Sisi also demanded the resolution of the issue of Palestinian refugees as per UN General Assembly Resolution 194. El-Sisi promised to introduce “ warm ties” between Egypt and Israel in lieu of implementing his initiative.

Recalling the past events of the Middle East, one would state that this initiative is in line with the thinking of late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser ( 1918-1970) when he accepted in 1969 the Rogers Plan.  The plan  was a framework proposed by United States Secretary of State William Rogers to achieve an end to belligerence in the Arab-Israeli conflict following the 1967 war and the continued War of Attrition.

Unfortunately, the plan stalled following the passing away of Nasser on 28^th September 1970. However, the Egyptian President Anwar el- Sadat( 1918-1981) resurrected the peace process following his victory in 1973 war. He signed two peace agreements with Israel. The first was signed  on 18^th January 1974 and the second on 4^th  September 1975.

Egyptian-Israeli ties survived during the regimes of Hosni Mubarak and Muhammad Mursi. The first lacked the political will to enhance the peace process, while the second tried to sabotage it. Both were politically killed by the Middle East issue. They simply could not comprehend the issue and took wrong decisions at defining moments that emerged in  turbulent events.

In retrospect, el-Sisi initiative has a far-reaching influence on the regional and global peace. If sincerely implemented by Israeli and the Palestinian state, it would massively contribute to establishing a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians, bringing the long conflict to an end. In effect, we are living in a critical phase of the issue that decides the final crossing from despair to hope.