Egypt used Gaza ceasefire to ‘improve its standing in Washington’

Egypt tried to prove to Washington it can still handle the ‘Palestinian file’ when it brokered the latest Israel-Hamas ceasefire, experts say.

As the first Israeli missile landed on the besieged Gaza Strip, marking the start of an 11-day military offensive, Egypt saw a “tremendous opportunity” to assert itself politically in the region and, as many analysts say, to prove itself to the new US administration. US President Joe Biden thanked Egypt for “its successful diplomacy” in brokering a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the group that governs Gaza. “The Egyptian regime wishes to illustrate to the Biden administration that they can still handle the ‘Palestinian file’, and that they are willing to follow the US guidance in this regard,” Alaa Tartir, policy adviser at Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network, told Al Jazeera.