Egypt is embarking on an “honest and sincere” mediation to end the Iran war, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi said on Thursday, adding that a continuing conflict would inflict a “high price.”
“Egypt had tried to prevent this escalation because it knows only too well from experience that wars only result in destruction, ruin and hurting the interests and destiny of the people,” the Egyptian leader told those attending a Ramadan iftar organised by the military academy.
“Egypt is continuing to try to launch a mediation effort that's both sincere and honest to stop the war because its continuation will exact a high price,” he said, according to his office. “This war is a reflection of mistaken calculations and assessments.”
Mr El Sisi this week spoke about his country's failed efforts to prevent the war. His comments on Thursday were the first by any official in Egypt to reveal its attempt to mediate an end to the war.
Mr El Sisi did not divulge details of what Cairo was doing to launch a bid to end the US and Israel war on Iran, which began on February 28. Iran has attacked the Gulf region in retaliation.
But sources in Cairo told The National that Egypt and fellow US allies Turkey and Oman were jointly launching a bid to persuade the warring parties to accept their mediation to end the conflict.
The sources emphasised that the effort remained in its preliminary stage, with mediators seeking to persuade the parties to send representatives to Cairo for talks. The mediation has so far seen delegates from the three nations touring Gulf Arab states and contacting the Iranians and Americans, they added.
They did not say whether the Israelis were also contacted. Relations between Egypt and Turkey on one side and Israel on the other have been fraught with tension since the Gaza war broke out in 2023.
But the two regional powerhouses had mediated, alongside Qatar and the US, a Gaza ceasefire that came into effect in October, with Egyptian mediators regularly meeting with Israeli officials during months of negotiations.
They did not share in detail what the three potential mediators are offering the two sides in the Iran war, saying only that issues under discussion included Iran's stock of most enriched uranium, its nuclear and missile programmes and Tehran's support for armed groups across the Middle East.
Another topic under discussion is a revision of existing maritime boundaries in the Gulf and Arabian Sea to ensure the safe and smooth passage of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf, and Bab Al Mandeb, the southern gate to the Red Sea, according to the sources.
An agreement, they explained, would provide for the lifting of sanctions on Iran and releasing its frozen assets. They had nothing to say about regime change in Iran, which both Israel and the US give as being among the war's goals.
“The Egyptians, Turks and Omanis are also trying to persuade Gulf Arab states under Iranian attack to continue to exercise restraint and not enter the war,” said one of the sources. “There's no telling what will happen to the region if they are provoked into joining the war.”
Egypt and Turkey have seen their relations quickly becoming closer since they ended more than a decade of tension following the removal in Egypt of a pro-Turkish Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, in 2013.
Oman has traditionally mediated between the US and Iran, hosting talks on a wide range of issues, including Washington's stern opposition to Tehran's nuclear programme.
Egypt, however, is more likely than Turkey and Oman to see its economy seriously hurt by the fallout from the latest Iran war. Already, the Egyptian pound is sliding in value against the US dollar and the government is talking about hard times round the corner as prices in the imports-reliant nation of more than 108 million have begun to soar.
Israel's decision to suspend natural gas deliveries to Egypt soon after the war began was a body blow to the country's energy security. Damage to Qatar's main natural gas plant has robbed Egypt of a feasible substitute for Israeli gas.
Mr El Sisi has already warned Egyptians that renewed economic hardship was inevitable and appealed to the nation to stand united as it did during the damaging impact of the Covid pandemic, the Russian-Ukraine war and the Gaza war.
He repeated his message on Thursday.
“The present crisis may have some consequences on prices,” he warned, adding that he had ordered authorities to look into the possibility of merchants who “manipulate prices” being tried in military courts.
“We are in a semi state of emergency and no one should manipulate the prices of people's essential needs.”
