Last night’s talk shows zeroed in on US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to the country yesterday, which saw him meeting with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty at the Alamein presidential palace as part of a diplomatic tour in the Middle East aimed at pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza and advocating for a “bridging proposal” presented by the US during ceasefire negotiations in Doha last week. The meetings were the hot topic on Ala Mas’ouleety (watch, runtime: 4:48), Salet El Tahrir (watch, runtime: 10:38) and El Sa’a El Sadesa (watch, runtime: 9:25).

Blinken’s Mideast trip ends on an ambivalent note: Blinken departed the region for Washington yesterday “with an agreement between Israel and Hamas still elusive,” Reuters writes. The agreement “needs to get done, and it needs to get done in the days ahead, and we will do everything possible to get it across the finish line,” Blinken told reporters in Doha, where he flew in yesterday following his Alamein visit. After meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, Blinken said Israel had accepted the bridging proposal, while Hamas said the proposal overturns previously agreed terms.

A ploy on Netanyahu’s part? “Israel said it agrees to the proposal, but part of it is diplomatic deceit,” political analyst Abdel Moneim Saeed said in a phone call with Salet El Tahrir’s Faten Abdel Maaboud. Netanyahu could later seek to modify specific clauses or words, which would give him a plausible justification to present to the Knesset, and a way to subvert the agreement after publicly endorsing it, Saeed explained. “This sort of maneuver is commonplace in situations like this,” he added

At the Alamein palace: El Sisi and Blinken agreed to push joint efforts to restore regional stability and discussed ways to make progress in the ongoing negotiations in Cairo, according to an Ittihadeya statement. They also reviewed the joint Egyptian-American-Qatari mediation efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and exchange detainees, including the outcomes of the last round of negotiations hosted in Doha last week.

On Blinken’s chat with Abdelatty: The pair discussed the importance of advancing political, military, commercial, and economic cooperation between the two countries as well as holding the second round of the US-Egypt Joint Economic Commission. They also talked about a host of regional issues including developments in Palestine, Sudan, Libya, the Horn of Africa, Red Sea, and the African Sahel.

IN OTHER DIPLO NEWS- President El Sisi also met with United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed yesterday to discuss Egypt’s efforts in the domains of security and peace, climate change, and sustainable development. They also discussed ways to de-escalate regional tensions.

Tags: