EGYPT PERSPECTIVE

Cairo, June 17, 2026. As Israel severed its relations with the European Union, Cairo was executing a diplomatic sequence at the Evian G7 summit—and Egyptian media chose to narrate the Israeli-European crisis through the lens of this revealing simultaneity.

According to Egyptian Streets, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi met with European Council President António Costa on the margins of the G7 summit at Evian on June 16. The two leaders discussed Egypt-EU relations and regional developments in the Middle East. El-Sisi highlighted the upward trajectory of their bilateral partnership, marked by the elevation of ties to a "Global Strategic Partnership" in March 2024 and the first Egypt-EU summit in Brussels in October 2025. Costa reaffirmed Europe's commitment to deepening cooperation under mutually beneficial conditions.

On Gaza, el-Sisi addressed the G7 session devoted to regional stability with an unambiguous position, as reported by Egypt Independent: "There is no alternative to a just and lasting settlement of the Palestinian question founded on the two-state solution," guaranteeing the creation of an independent Palestinian state on the June 4, 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. The Egyptian president also called for accelerating implementation of Donald Trump's peace plan for the Gaza Strip, while insisting on maintaining the ceasefire and continuity of humanitarian aid deliveries.

Cairo's positioning takes particular significance in the context of the Israeli-European rupture. Egypt maintains parallel relations with both the EU and serves as a central mediator in Gaza negotiations: any fracture between Tel Aviv and Brussels mechanically heightens the importance of this Cairo channel. El-Sisi's meetings with Costa and Ursula von der Leyen at the G7 margins testify to a convergence of views that the Egyptian president himself described as "convergence on a number of key issues."

Egyptian press also notes, via Egypt Independent, that Amnesty International accused Israel of war crimes in southern Lebanon, condemning the use of "mass evacuation orders" as a tool for forced civilian displacement—a practice characterized as a "flagrant violation of international humanitarian law" and "war crime" under the Fourth Geneva Convention. These accusations, published in an official report, directly fuel the European criticisms that led to the diplomatic rupture with Tel Aviv.

For Cairo, the G7 sequence illustrates a reconfiguration of regional equilibrium: the US-Iran agreement signed on the summit's margins, combined with Israel's growing isolation from its traditional Western partners, creates space in which Egyptian regional diplomacy can exercise greater influence. El-Sisi "welcomed the agreement reached between the United States and Iran" and expressed hope it would contribute to "reducing tensions in the region."