A timeline that is timely. This Monday was held in Paris an international summit of aid to Sudan, bringing together many African delegations. It had been planned for a long time. Neither one nor two, Emmanuel Macron has arranged his agenda to be able to meet at lunchtime with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, participating in the event. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian did the same with his counterpart, Sameh Choukri. As the conflict in the Middle East bogs down, French diplomacy is relying heavily on "Egypt's mediation efforts to achieve a return to the ceasefire."
“Egypt is a central piece,” notes a connoisseur of the file.
No one can play the role they play for it: it is the only country speaking to Israel and all Palestinian factions, including Hamas, which is attacking Israel.
This Islamist movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, has unleashed more than 3,000 shots after the outbreak of violence between Palestinians and Israeli police on the Mosque Esplanade in East Jerusalem a week ago.
For their part, the European capitals, just like Washington, refuse any contact with this organization which they consider as "terrorist".
As for the UN Security Council, it met on Sunday, without being able to agree on a common motion.
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A real risk of extension of the conflict
In its intermediary position, Cairo sent delegations to the field and opened its border at Rafah, the only entry into the Gaza Strip not controlled by Israel, to allow a few ambulances to evacuate wounded Palestinians. to Egyptian hospitals.
But the solution will not come through just one channel.
"We are in a group of joint action between the Germans, the Egyptians, the Jordanians and ourselves to constantly try to renew the threads of dialogue," Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Saturday.
The French minister also met Sunday evening with Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State.
If the Biden administration did not seem inclined to make the Middle East a priority, it had to resolve to plunge its hands back into the sludge of the oldest and more symbolic conflict in this area.
It must be said that the risk of extension of the conflict is real: in the territories of the West Bank, in mixed Israeli towns where violence has already broken out and on the border with Lebanon.
"Restore confidence in the short term"
If France ensures that it maintains a "language of truth" with Egypt on the issue of human rights, it also maintains "a relationship in terms of defense". It resulted in the purchase of thirty additional Rafale fighter jets in May. "This contract illustrates the strategic nature of the partnership that France maintains with Egypt, while our two countries are resolutely engaged in the fight against terrorism and work for stability in their regional environment", had then greeted in a press release the French Ministry of the Armed Forces.
Asked on the sidelines of the summit on Sudan, Emmanuel Macron praised the “absolutely key role” of Egyptian mediation in order to “restore short-term confidence” between the various actors in the file. The Head of State announced that a "concrete proposal", resulting from a discussion with President Sisi and the King of Jordan, would be put forward "in the coming days" - without saying more. Behind the scenes, a complex diplomatic battle has only just begun.