Perhaps one of the most important things to emerge in the last few days, amid great regional instability, is the importance of the Egyptian diplomatic role in the Middle East and Arab world. Rapid Egyptian moves succeeded in creating a space for diplomatic action, avoiding a terrifying collision following the resignation of Lebanese prime minister Saad Al-Hariri. Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri toured six Arab capitals in which he delivered verbal messages from President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi. The tour was followed by calls from Saudi Arabia for an urgent meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo at a time President Al-Sisi visited Oman to defuse heightened tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran. In my opinion, this is the harvest of a successful strategy followed by President Al-Sisi who proved, during the past three years, to be a good reader of the international political scene and its reflections on Egypt and the region. His foreign policy strategy can be summed up as follows Restore internal stability: from the first moment, Al-Sisi deemed that restoring stability internally, especially in the security domain, and countering terrorism courageously, was a priority, not only on the local level but as a cornerstone for Egypt's external revival. Economic independence and military power: Al-Sisi decided to face the accumulated structural flaws in the economy in a clear reform approach, despite the potential impact on his popularity. This reflected at the external level in two ways: bringing international confidence to the new Egyptian economic scene; and explicitly establishing that Egypt's goal would be national independence. In parallel, the Egyptian armed forces witnessed the most comprehensive modernisation effort in decades, in both weapons capabilities and training. Restore Arab regional security: Egypt moved from countering internal terrorism to regional action aimed at shoring up the Arab regional security system. Egypt emphasised that the security of Arab Gulf states is an integral part of Egyptian national security, and that the Palestinian case remains the central issue of the Arab world. Egypt moved to establish priorities for joint Arab action, such as restoring the role of the Arab League. Egypt also stood to stem the downfall of Arab states. Egypt's attitude towards the situation in Syria remains the best example of that philosophy. Re-establish Egypt's place in the African continent: Egypt's position in the continent had been in steady decline over the three years prior to Al-Sisi's rule. The Egyptian president succeeded to revive Egypt's presence on the African scene, whether through African summits or direct bilateral relations. Egypt has also worked on the developmental axis by giving political and diplomatic momentum to major African economic gatherings. This all comes together with the continued role of soft diplomacy, through the Egyptian Agency for Development, which trains dozens of pioneers from various African countries in different fields, in addition to the expansion of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif's missions, especially in Islamic belt countries. Balanced relations with international powers: Egypt adopted openness with all influential forces in the world arena and gave priority to those who first supported the June Revolution and respected the will of the Egyptian people. Moreover, it gave opportunity for various Western constituencies to understand the new reality in Egypt while, at the same time, it adopted mutual respect and non-intervention in internal affairs as basic principles in its interaction with international powers. Egypt has also managed to protect its strategic relations with those powers. This overview emphasises that Egypt is now the only regional country capable of intervening in all flammable regional issues, whether in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen or Libya. Egypt can play a key role because of its vision, and the fact that it has never been a party to the problems, and therefore can provide objective solutions.
