Egyptian diplomacy seems to be doing all it can to balance out pressure on the home front, reports Dina Ezzat Egyptian diplomacy has rarely been busier: hardly a day goes by without President Hosni Mubarak and Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul- Gheit receiving visiting dignitaries or heading overseas for conferences and meetings. And if not Mubarak or Abul-Gheit, it is often intelligence chief Omar Suliman, who conducts foreign policy missions related to the Palestinian file, and presidential political advisor Ossama El-Baz, who has dedicated much of his efforts to engaging the White House, the State Department and Congress. Egyptian diplomats who spoke to Al-Ahram Weekly said the foreign policy profile is higher than usual for this time of the year. Some even argued that it is higher than it has been for the past four years. Members of Egypt's diplomatic corps overseas also report much foreign policy hype. "We are working around the clock. We are working ceaselessly," said one diplomat. The source pointed to "the number of meetings that the president conducted over the past eight weeks, with more to come over the coming week." Today, Mubarak is expected to meet with French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie and US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East Liz Cheney. Over the course of the week he received other high-level officials including President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, and the influential Iraqi politician and former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. Mubarak has also had numerous telephone contacts with Arab and other world leaders. Next week, the president is planning to fly to Libya to attend an African Unity Summit; he is seriously considering a consecutive trip to Scotland in order to conduct a tentatively scheduled short meeting with US President George W Bush on the sidelines of the G8 talks. And despite the approaching diplomatic recess, Egyptian diplomacy is also planning several encounters that are set to focus on Egypt's immediate zones of interest and influence: the Arab world, Africa and the Mediterranean. Many attribute this intense diplomatic pace to regional and international developments. Others, however, think that with less than three months to go before the presidential elections, the government is activating its presence and performance on all fronts in order to secure victories to report to voters. "With or without presidential elections foreign policy is a key issue on Egypt's agenda. Foreign policy, obviously, has a crucial impact on home developments. A country's regional and international status has a direct impact on its international economic and trade relations and its capacity to attract foreign investment," argued Ossama El-Ghazali Harb, editor of Al-Ahram's Al-Syasa Al-Dawliya (International Politics) quarterly. Moreover, diplomats and state officials acknowledge that by taking certain foreign policy moves the regime might also garner the support of key international powers. "Some think that by pursuing good relations with the US the regime is only pursuing support for its own existential purposes. This is not true. By establishing close ties with the US, this regime has been able to make foreign policy a tool that serves the nation's economic interests," commented one diplomat. Some bring up Egypt's engaging in the liberation of Kuwait from the Iraqi invasion of 1990, and thus managing to scrap billions of dollars in foreign debt. "Obviously this is not a possibility now, but getting the US to declare its initiation to negotiate a free trade agreement with Egypt would certainly be a clear foreign policy achievement that could serve the president in his electoral campaign." It is this kind of 'home interests-oriented foreign policy' that Cairo is busy with these days. Egypt's dedication to promoting itself as a candidate for a seat on the potentially enlarged UN Security Council is not necessarily a sign of Cairo's expectations of getting that seat -- especially considering that the Security Council reform plan is not at all a done deal. However, Cairo believes that by proposing itself as such, it stands to make up for the diplomatic influence that critics say Egypt has lost. Moreover, Egypt is now working hard on a set of regional issues that could reflect positively on its relations with the US, and as such catalyse what diplomats hope will be significant economic fruits. The warm reception Cairo gave Allawi last week is a good example. According to sources, Allawi arrived in Cairo aboard a US military plane. The fact that he was received by no less than President Mubarak, the foreign minister, and the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, and that he made lengthy press statements after each of those meetings, is a clear message of Cairo's willingness to cooperate in inducing stability in Iraq. This, one diplomat said, is "something that will be as highly valued by Washington as by other key Arab countries including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait". Arab diplomats in Cairo also point to Egypt's moves to upgrade the status of its current chargé d'affaires in Baghdad to an ambassador, as "a go-ahead" to other Arab capitals to do the same. "Following the declaration made by Iraqi Foreign Minister Houchiar Zebari that Egypt will send an ambassador to Iraq, other Arab capitals have been prompted to approach Iraqi officials to consider sending ambassadors to Baghdad. This is something that would endorse the American story that the situation is improving in Iraq," commented one Cairo-based Arab diplomat. Continuing its communications with militant Palestinian factions to secure an ongoing commitment -- even at a minimum level -- to the truce with Israel is also something that Washington places great stock in. "We are heavily engaged in working out the details of the Israeli disengagement from Gaza and in securing stability in Gaza after the withdrawal," commented an Egyptian diplomat. He added that Cairo has received some good feedback from Washington on this matter -- including the less aggressive tone that US officials have been using while criticising the pace of domestic reforms. Moreover, sources say that Cairo will continue to pressure Syria to keep its hands off Lebanon, and the Sudanese government to accommodate the grievances and woes of its opposition. Foreign Ministry officials say that more serious work is planned on both the Sudanese, Iraqi and Palestinian files for the weeks ahead. They suggest that Cairo is working hard on an all-inclusive Sudanese conference to consolidate the fragile peace and is considering a new round of talks among Palestinian factions to consolidate the much-weakened truce. Informed Egyptian diplomatic sources say that they are not sure that Cairo will upgrade the status of its chargé d'affaires in Baghdad before the presidential elections or whether President Mubarak will visit Israel, as has been reported. However, they add that they are confident that Cairo will continue to promote itself as a key regional power that could be involved in the hottest issues in the region as a dedicated US foreign policy ally. Meanwhile, sources assert that Cairo will also work on uplifting the profiles of its relations with other key regional and world capitals in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Whether or not this exercise will spare Egypt from bowing to increasing US demands that international monitors observe its presidential and parliamentary elections in September and October remains to be seen.
