Israel, Egypt signal closer cooperation as Sisi invites Bennett to Cairo

Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintained strong ties with Cairo in recent years, focusing almost exclusively on security cooperation. It appears that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi intends to establish similar strong relations with the new Israeli government with high-level meetings held yesterday and today in Israel with Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate chief Abbas Kamel.

Yesterday, Kamel met with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Defense Minister Benny Gantz. Today, Kamel met with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid. After their meeting, Lapid tweeted, "We discussed relations between the countries and the need to expand relations to economic and civil issues as well. Israel and Egypt have other areas in which cooperation can be promoted, starting with trade, medicine, technology, agriculture and energy, areas that will help advance relations between the countries."