Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s reassurances about “peace” with Israel raised questions about easing tensions between Cairo and Tel Aviv.
Al-Sisi said that his country “fought a war in defense of its land and regained all of its lands,” wondering whether “some circles in Israel have unjustified perceptions or concerns about the presence of Egyptian ambitions toward them.”
During a symposium for the Egyptian Armed Forces, on Wednesday evening, commemorating the anniversary of the October 1973 War, Sisi commented on the statements of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich about Sinai, in which he claimed that “Egypt does not attack Israel for fear of a return to the occupation of Sinai,” saying that he “heard and followed the statements of the Israeli minister about Sinai.”
He stressed that “Egypt’s first and last goal is to maintain its security and stability and preserve the capabilities of its people,” pointing out that “the Egyptian state does not have any hidden agendas, and that its main priority is to preserve its borders and national security within a framework of peace and stability.”
He added that the “peace treaty” signed between Egypt and Israel in 1979 represents a governing framework for relations between the two sides, explaining that “Egypt has no ambitions towards anyone.”
National security expert Major General Mohamed Abdel Wahed said, “President Sisi’s goal is to confirm that Egypt has no ambitions in any of the neighboring countries, and that it has done a lot to regain its land, and after regaining it, it is not in conflict with anyone and is focusing only on development.” He added to Asharq Al-Awsat, “This decision and confirmation on the part of President Sisi is an embarrassment to the Israeli side, especially to this extremist minister, within his government and before the world.”
He stressed that the Egyptian President's statements were also aimed at "exposing the Israeli mentality to the world and revealing its aggression and extremism, and that Israel is not a state of peace, but it always talks about war and seizing others' lands."
He continued: “Al-Sisi also distinguished in his statements between self-defense and aggression against others,” and stressed that “Egypt regained its land through self-defense and that it is capable of defending that land at any time, and that it leaned toward peace immediately after regaining that land and is preserving it.”
Abdel Wahed noted that President Sisi “also wanted to resolve the issue that Egypt does not have any hidden goals or plans to enter into confrontations or wars with Israel, or with any country, and that it is only preserving its land and borders. This was a speech to everyone and not to Israel alone, in addition to the fact that the Israeli far-right government has become accustomed to launching propaganda with every election with the aim of influencing the Israeli voter.”
Smotrich had said over the weekend in a video interview that “what prevents Egypt from attacking Israel is its realization that the result of any war will be the loss of Sinai,” adding: “At least there will be no Sinai,” calling on all of Israel’s opponents to realize that “war has a price.”
In turn, the former Director of Morale Affairs in the Egyptian Army, Major General Samir Farag, believes that President Sisi’s goal with these statements “is not to reduce tensions, but to thwart the Israeli propaganda of the Netanyahu government, which seeks to win the elections by portraying that there is an imminent danger on the border from the Egyptian army.”
In his speech to Asharq Al-Awsat, Farag noted that Al-Sisi confirmed to the world that “what Israel is saying is not true, and that Egypt has chosen peace as a strategic option, whether with Israel or others, and that at the same time it is protecting its borders and is capable of defending them against any aggression.”
Smotrich's statements sparked controversy on social media and in the Egyptian media, especially since the recent period witnessed tensions due to "Cairo's rejection of the attempts of Benjamin Netanyahu's government to displace the people of Gaza to Sinai, as well as violations by Israeli forces on the border."
Former Egyptian intelligence agent, Major General Mohamed Rashad, told Asharq Al-Awsat that despite President Sisi’s statements, “the tensions between Egypt and Israel will not end, because Israel, especially the Netanyahu government, is deliberately launching provocative propaganda towards Egypt, with the aim of mobilizing the interior, especially during the elections, and Egypt will also not forget that Israel occupies the (Philadelphia) border axis in violation of the peace treaty.”
According to Rashad, “Sisi’s statements are neither reassurance nor appeasement with Israel as much as they reveal the difference between Egypt’s strategy, which adopts peace as an approach and is committed to it, and the Israeli approach, which is used to issuing threats and always seeking to enter into wars.”
National organizations, unions and Tunisian parties called for intensive participation in a national march, called by the Tunisian Labor Union the day after tomorrow, Saturday, to protest the economic and social conditions and the decline in public services, and to demand freedoms in the country.
The Tunisian General Labor Union, the largest union in the country, called on workers and citizens to gather in Mohamed Ali El Hami Square, opposite its central headquarters in the capital, to participate in the national march, according to what the German News Agency reported on Thursday.
The “Union” is protesting against the authority’s suspension of social negotiations, against the rise in prices and the cost of living, and a significant decline in the purchasing power of workers and employees. This is the latest movement in the street by organizations in light of a significant decline in civil society and opposition activities, since President Kais Saied strengthened his ruling powers in 2021, and the imprisonment of dozens of opponents, activists, lawyers, and journalists in cases related to conspiring against state security, financial issues, and spreading false news.
While the opposition says that the cases are political and fabricated, President Saied says that he is working to combat corruption and chaos, and prevent the dismantling of state institutions.
Al-Shaab newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Tunisian General Labor Union, called Saturday’s move a “course correction” process.
Othman Al-Jalouli, a member of the union’s executive office, said in statements reported by the website that the march comes after an assessment of the deteriorating social and economic conditions, the strike on union work, the restrictions on freedoms and civil society, and the besieging of organizations, in addition to trials that most of them do not respect legal standards.
The National Union of Tunisian Journalists also called on journalists to participate in the march to demand “work, freedom and dignity.”
For its part, the Nafs Movement, which defends civil and political rights, urged citizens, civil society and all parties to participate in the march “in defense of freedom and social justice.”
For its part, the opposition National Salvation Front said that the differences between the parties “should not hinder the building of the broadest peaceful struggle front capable of confronting individual rule, restoring democracy, defending rights and freedoms, and opening the way to just economic and social reform.”
