Report: White House looking to broker summit between Netanyahu and Egypt’s Sissi

The White House is looking to broker a summit between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, Axios reports.

While Egypt has played a key role in mediating between Israel and Hamas over Gaza, relations between the two leaders are frosty. Sissi had avoided speaking to Netanyahu throughout the Gaza conflict and the two have not met in public since 2017.

The report, citing a US official and an Israeli source, says the deal is part of a wider push by the US to improve Israel’s ties with the Arab world.

However, Israel will need to make a range of concessions to Egypt, including signing a strategic gas deal between the countries, to entice Sissi to the meeting, Axios reports.

“This is a huge opportunity for Israel. Selling gas to Egypt will create interdependence, get the countries closer together, create a warmer peace and prevent war,” a US official tells Axios.

The report says the US believes that Israel needs to show the world that it has more to offer than just acting as a counter to Iran.

The Israeli source says that Netanyahu has put together a team that is looking at building a package of incentives to offer Sissi.

“What we told Bibi is that he needs to turn it into a warm peace and then work together to de-escalate things in the region. If it works with Egypt we can then do the same thing with Syria, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia,” the US official says.