Δημοσιεύθηκε από το Κυπριακό Κέντρο Ευρωπαϊκών και Διεθνών Υποθέσεων
του Πανεπιστημίου Λευκωσίας
(Περιοδική έκδοση InDepth Vol.11 Issue 6 / 01.12.2014 )
Publishe by the Cyprus Centre of European and International Affairs
University of Nicosia
Egypt,
under the presidency of Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi, is re-experiencing the
implementation of the Mubarak doctrine on the country's regional
alliances. Al-Sisi, one of the key figures during the uprising against
Mohammad Morsi's regime in 2012, has been very clear about the way he
sees Egypt's place in the world: Cairo strengthened its intelligence and
military cooperation with Israel vis-à-vis the Hamas regime in the Gaza
Strip, which allegedly holds strong ties with Islamic factions in the
Sinai peninsula. The Egyptian government clearly shows its strategic
resilience to the US-led coalition against the Islamic State in Syria
and Iraq, which has resulted in the renewal of the decades-long
political alliance with other pro-Western Sunni Arab States, such as
Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, the UAE, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain. Al-Sisi
does his best in order to show his differentiation towards the Muslim
Brotherhood's brief control of political power under Morsi, adopting
severe measures against radical political Islam, in order to remind to
the West that Cairo is able to continue to bridge the Arab world and the
West, as it did during the Mubarak era. Egypt is annoyed by Turkish and
Qatari intrusiveness over the issues concerning the influence of
political Islam in Egypt's political scene and in the Levant in general.
At the same time, Egypt and the West are preoccupied with the unstable
situation in neighboring Libya, while both keep a low profile towards
Assad's secular regime in view of a Western-led coalition against the
Islamic State.
President
Al-Sisi's regional agenda shows that Mubarak's legacy in the country's
foreign policy will continue to affect Egyptian decision-makers,
following a brief period of pro-Islamic ambivalence that puzzled the
country's traditional ties with Western countries in the Mediterranean,
that shared a common past of good relations. One of those countries is
the Republic of Cyprus.
In
a volatile Middle East and South east Mediterranean, regional alliances
do not remain stable. However, geographical facts do - and Cyprus has
always been important for Egypt. During the '60s Gamal Abdel Nasser
viewed Cyprus as a strategic ally that might reflect Cairo's regional
endeavors through Nicosia's activity in the Non-Aligned Movement,
despite – and due to - the fact that the island was an integral part of
NATO's regional military presence. During the '70s and '80s Cyprus was
an additional positive factor for Egypt's commercial and diplomatic
relations with the West. Nevertheless, Cairo understood well that
keeping a low profile over the continuing Turkish occupation of the
northern part of the island was essential in order to prevent any
undesired correlation affecting Cairo's normalized, yet vulnerable, ties
with Israel, a country which maintained a strong strategic alliance
with Ankara for decades.
