The Russian Foreign Ministry reported yesterday that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke by phone with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, at the initiative of Egypt. “The ministers exchanged views on the developments in the Middle East with a focus on the need for an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone and the general de-escalation in the region. They also reaffirmed Moscow and Cairo’s unwavering commitment to coordinating actions on the entire Middle East agenda.”
Notable is that Egypt is reported to be refusing to participate in the coalition that the U.S. is hoping to pull together in order to defend Israel again from Iranian retaliation as it did in April. The Times of Israel, citing the the Qatari-owned news outlet al-Araby al-Jadeed, reported this morning that Egypt informed the high-level Israeli delegation that visited Cairo on Aug. 2 for the Gaza ceasefire talks with American and Egyptian negotiators, that it will not be part of a regional military coalition to repel a potential Iranian retaliatory attack against Israel.
The Qatari outlet also reported that Egypt also notified Tehran that it will close its airspace to any military action that would threaten regional security.
