Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi received the head of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) Ronald Lauder in Cairo on Tuesday, presidential spokesman Alaa Youssef said in a statement, according to al-Ahram newspaper, an Egyptian state-owned newspaper.
In the meeting, Al-Sisi discussed with Ronald Lauder a number of regional issues, atop of which the peace process in the Middle East as well as Palestinian reconciliation efforts.
According to Egypt’s spokesman, the meeting reflects Egypt’s keenness to communicate with all sectors of American society in order to improve understanding of the challenges the region is currently facing.
In addition, the meeting was attended by Egypt’s Intelligence Chief Khaled Fawzi and the WJC advisor for Middle East Affairs Thaer Mukbel.
In this context, Al-Sisi stressed the strong and strategic ties binding Egypt and the United States, assuring more cooperation at all levels during the coming period.
For his part, Lauder expressed his appreciation for Egypt’s role in maintaining stability and peace in the Middle East and its efforts to combat terrorism.
The US-based World Jewish Congress was founded in August 1936 as an international federation of Jewish communities and organisations.
Last September, Al-Sisi also met in New York with a group of American Jewish leaders to discuss the peace deal in the Middle East.
Moreover, both Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Benjamin Netanyahu met in New York in September 2017. This was the first public meeting between the two leaders since al-Sisi took office.
However, this wasn’t the first time as both Netanyahu and al-Sisi had already met in a secret meeting in Aqaba in January 2016.
The Aqaba summit, which was also attended by King Abdullah of Jordan and the former -U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, was first reported about a year after it occurred. It was convened in an effort to restart Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, but produced no progress.
Over the past three years, the Egyptian Israeli relations have flourished in an unprecedented way.
Since the military coup led by Abdel Fattah al-Sisi against the first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi, the relation between the al-Sisi regime and Israel has developed on the security and intelligence levels in Sinai Peninsula.
Moreover, al-Sisi regime has worked on enhancing intimate diplomatic relation to open the way for full normalization. This was directly stated in Al-Sisi’s famous speech during the official inauguration of the Asyuit power plant when he promised Israel “warmer” peace adding that Egypt is ready to mediate to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
In addition, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi renewed his promise to fulfill warm peace to Israel if the Palestinian Israeli conflict was resolved during speaking to U.N. General Assembly in September 2016. Al-Sisi has also described the Israel-Egypt model as “a real opportunity to write a bright page in the history of our region to move towards peace.”
