Add to President Donald Trump’s Sunday afternoon report that Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE had requested that he not proceed with his intended renewed bombing of Iran, similar diplomatic efforts made by Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty to insist on a negotiated resolution.
Abdelatty made separate phone calls on Sunday with his Saudi and Qatar counterparts (Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani). It is clear from the report in Egyptian daily Al Ahram that both calls had a similar intent. In his call with Prince Faisal, the ministers “reviewed ongoing coordination between Arab states to contain escalating regional conflicts and avoid what they described as the `dangerous consequences of continued escalation,’ which could drag the Middle East into broader instability threatening international peace and security.” Likewise, Sheikh al Thani and Egypt’s Abdelatty agreed on “the importance of resuming and sustaining the diplomatic track. They said dialogue and political solutions remain the only viable path to resolving the crisis and preventing the region from sliding into unpredictable confrontations.”
Abdelatty also delivered the same message when he spoke on Sunday with Massad Boulos, the Lebanese-American billionaire who is Senior Advisor to US President Donald Trump for Arab and African Affairs. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry reported that Abdelatty stressed “the importance of resuming dialogue between the United States and Iran to reach understandings that could help contain regional tensions. He also called for diplomacy and political dialogue to prevent a wider escalation in the Middle East.”
