According to press reports in Egyptian and Arab newspapers, Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi is about to pay an official visit to Washington sometime in the next few weeks. The foreign minister of Egypt was due in the US capital in the week starting Monday, 27 February, to prepare the visit of Al-Sisi to the United States. The Egyptian president had called President Donald Trump hours after he was sworn in 20 January to congratulate him and to express Egypt's willingness to work with the new US administration in the context of the “strategic relations” that have bound the two countries since the end of the 1970s, after Anwar Al-Sadat broke Egypt's relations with the former Soviet Union and decided to throw his lot all the way with one superpower. Lost in the details has been the simple fact that US-Egyptian relations have always been a tributary of US-Israeli relations. Bilateral relations between Washington and Cairo have always been dependent on the commitment of Egypt to the Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel, signed on the lawn of the White House on 26 March 1979. I was witness to one of these rare historic moments that carry with it, at the time of happening, great promise and greater expectations that the world would be a much better place for all parties concerned. At the time, it was euphoria all around, and almost everyone present at the creation, to borrow the title of the memoirs written by the former US secretary of state Dean Acheson, thought that peace in the Middle East would be at hand. Almost four decades after the fact, Egypt, the Palestinians and the Arabs are still waiting. When President Al-Sisi flies to Washington soon, it is not a bad idea to keep that in mind while talking to President Trump about the Middle East. This upcoming visit is full of promise but also full of challenges for both the Egyptian president and his American counterpart. If I begin dealing with the challenges, I would single out the timing of the visit and its likely impact on its outcomes, from the point of view of Egyptian interests. Needless to say, the visit will be the first bilateral visit by an Egyptian head of state to the United States since April 2004. It is true that former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was a guest at the White House in September 2010, but this visit entailed participating in the MidEast Summit, called by former president Barack Obama, that brought together the Jordanian monarch, the president of the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli prime minister. The summit was an attempt to revive peace talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis. From 2011 till January 2017, US-Egyptian relations had been on a rollercoaster that caused deep strains that no single event or presidential visit would solve anytime soon. Egypt has changed; so did the United States. This fact should always be present in the back of the minds of Egyptian officials in charting a new course for relations between Cairo and Washington while President Trump is in the Oval Office. And the world, too, has undergone strategic changes that will impact the future course of the “strategic relations” or “partnership” between the United States and Egypt. The timing of the visit is challenging because both President Al-Sisi and President Trump are facing domestic opposition, fierce at times, from many quarters. Both are working on formulating a coherent message to the world as to where they want to lead their respective countries in a fast-moving international strategic landscape. President Trump is fighting on many fronts, not the least of which is the “liberal” American news media. The White House has moved to bar some news outlets from attending press briefings at the White House. A first as far as memories go. Even before the never-ending rows between the Trump White House and the press, some leading American papers have compared the ruling styles of both presidents, and their comparison adds to the challenge of the timing of Al-Sisi's visit to Washington. Another serious challenge is the kind of contacts that the Egyptian president will have with the United States Congress. I would assume that the programme of Al-Sisi in the US capital would include a visit to Capitol Hill. In all presidential visits to Washington that have taken place in a bilateral context such a visit has been a must. Some meetings of this kind were just less than stormy, from a political point of view. It would be a very pleasant surprise if this time around it were different. Let us keep our fingers crossed. I do not recall a visit by an Egyptian head of state to Washington while American politics is so charged and America so polarised. And I do not remember a visit by an Egyptian president to the US at a time of heightened tensions between the US president and the press and within the American executive itself. Let alone with Congressional democrats. The Democratic Party has just elected a new chairman for the Democratic National Committee. Listening to his remarks upon his election, I sense a looming confrontation with the White House. The fight for the mid-term elections next week has just begun. So this is the Washington DC in which the Egyptian president would land. His message will be highly critical for the future stability of relations between Egypt and the United States. Hopefully, it will not be lost on the Egyptian side that the United States is not solely President Trump. Of course, the White House is central to the politics of the American Republic; but still, it does not govern America alone. The message must be balanced, and I would add bipartisan. In other words, the Egyptian president should, on the one hand, reach both aisles at Congress, and on the other hand, steer clear of the existing political divisions and feuds blowing on Washington and the United States these days. Put differently, relations with Washington should not fall prey to these divisions and feuds. In this respect, I hope against hope that the Egyptian press understand the complexities of American politics today, and that their coverage of the visit to Washington be balanced, measured and objective. I understand that the Egyptian government is struggling on various fronts, internally and externally, and badly needs successes, that are hard to come by in these trying times, and would love to maximise the media effect of the visit to impress Egyptian public opinion. However, expectations should not be built up. A measured approach to the visit, on its part, would be welcome and would be wise. Will the Egyptian media adopt such an approach? It remains to be seen. Another serious challenge facing President Al-Sisi in his coming visit to Washington is the fact that he would be visiting a White House that is still working on strategies and policies with regards to the most urgent and serious foreign and regional questions that matter to Cairo. Take, for instance, peace negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis and the two-state solution. Two weeks ago. President Trump, in a presser with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, announced that he would back any deal agreed upon between the Palestinians and the Israelis, be it a two-state solution or any alternative. Aside from the fact that there is no other viable alternative, the president of the United States always supported the two-state solution. So the question is about the commitment of the present US administration towards, first, a historic reconciliation between the Palestinians and the Israelis, and second the political translation of this much hoped-for reconciliation on the ground. That is something that the Egyptian president will seek answers to. I hope such answers would be ready by the time he meets President Trump in Washington. The aforementioned are some of the challenges. But there is another minefield, however. It is this grandiose vision of Netanyahu on a wide regional security partnership with, not the Arab world or the Palestinians, rather, the Sunni Arab powers. A security partnership beyond the settlement of the Palestinian question according to the parameters of related Security Council resolutions. President Trumps seems to like the idea. A plan that would fit nicely into his policy of confronting Iran as the adversary, or enemy, in the region. Egypt should not join such an Israeli-Sunni alliance, if it will ever come into being. It stands against the basic premises of Egyptian foreign policy. Once Palestine comes into being, then we will see how to promote security and stability in the Middle East. One of the overriding concerns from an Egyptian standpoint is the fight against terrorism, within Egypt and in the Middle East. In a phone call with President Trump, Al-Sisi mentioned that Egypt has been fighting terrorism for the last 40 months alone. It is true. One sure test for the success or otherwise of Al-Sisi's visit to the United States will be the degree of political and material support Washington would provide Egypt in its fight against terrorism. One aspect of this support is more cooperation and coordination between Egyptian and American intelligence services in combating terror groups. And whether the United States would use its assets to help Egypt defeat terrorist groups operating in North Sinai. Also the degree to which the American government would commit its resources and resolve to fight terrorism in Libya and North Africa. Under the Obama administration, the American fight against terrorism was geographically limited to Iraq and Syria, a stance that helped the terrorist group that goes by the name of the Islamic State to expand in Sinai and Libya. The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said two days ago that the United States is working on a military strategy that would confront terrorism in a much broader geographical context. This is welcome news, if finalised and approved. In this case, Egypt would become a great asset for the world in seriously fighting terrorism, at long last. The visit of President Al-Sisi to Washington, which will be his first to the White House since he came to office in June 2014 (he had met former president Obama on 25 September 2014 in New York), should be a positive reset for bilateral relations between the United States and Egypt. Both sides need it, not only in the bilateral context, but also in the framework of reshaping political alliances and maps in the Middle East of tomorrow, a process that is going on right now by fire and blood. Cairo and Washington are two strategic partners that can work together to promote peace, security and stability in the Middle East and North Africa for the benefit of the future prosperity of the countries and people of the region. The upcoming visit of President Al-Sisi to Washington will also be a test of America's commitment to the security and prosperity of Egypt in the future. (see p.13) The writer is former assistant to the foreign minister.
