Egyptian president to visit Washington this month for talks with Trump

Translation by SadaNews - Sources informed "The National" newspaper today, Friday, that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi will travel to Washington this month for talks with U.S. President Donald Trump on a range of key regional issues, including relations between Egypt and Israel in the aftermath of the war on Gaza, and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. According to SadaNews translation, the sources, who were briefed on the preparations for President Sisi's visit, did not specify an exact date or duration for the visit. They indicated that a meeting between the Egyptian president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, hosted by President Trump, is under consideration. Axios reported earlier this month that the U.S. president was seeking to mediate a meeting between President Sisi and President Netanyahu. The Israeli Prime Minister is scheduled to meet with President Trump on December 29, during an eight-day visit to the United States. One source said, "Communications continue between Cairo and Washington to finalize the agenda for the visit. Egyptian officials have traveled to Washington for meetings with officials in the Trump administration." He added, "Egypt wants to ensure that agreements, or at least a common ground, are reached before the visit." The sources stated that Sisi will discuss with Trump the implementation of the second phase of the peace plan proposed by the U.S. president regarding Gaza, and will seek his opinion on the need to introduce "amendments" to the Egypt-Israel treaty of 1979, to reflect what they described as recent geopolitical changes. The sources indicated that Cairo primarily seeks to alleviate the restrictions stipulated in the treaty regarding the number of service personnel and the type of weapons it can deploy in area (C) - the part of the Sinai Peninsula on the border. According to the sources, it is likely that Sisi will raise another topic with Trump, which is Cairo's need for the U.S. leader to quickly convince Netanyahu to approve a multi-billion dollar strategic deal, under which Israel would supply Egypt with natural gas for liquefaction and export. Media reports indicated that Netanyahu wanted to announce his approval of the agreement during the meeting with the Egyptian president, which he could use as evidence of the normalization of Israeli relations with Cairo after a period of unprecedented tension. The sources reported that Sisi would ask Trump to intervene directly to resolve the long-standing Egyptian dispute with Ethiopia over its construction of a massive dam on the Nile River, which Cairo considers a threat to its vital share of the river's water. It said that Egypt wants Trump to persuade Ethiopia of the necessity of managing the dam jointly by experts from all eleven Nile Basin countries, along with representatives from the African Union. Egypt also demands the U.S. president's support for a new regional treaty preventing Nile Basin countries from building dams on the river without consulting other countries.