There is a relative Apathy in Egyptian-American relations, and the reasons for this are numerous. On more than one occasion, Cairo adopted a policy different from Washington’s and refused to be part of it. This included the American demand for the displacement of the residents of the Gaza Strip and their acceptance of Egyptian territory in the Sinai Peninsula. This was a key position, and it was the beginning of the Apathy in relations between the two countries.
At a later stage, there was the American demand for Egyptian participation in the air campaign against the Houthis in Yemen. The Egyptian administration also refused to participate in the campaign. This is the second time Egypt has refused to participate in military campaigns in Yemen, following the first time in 2015.
Regarding the second and first campaigns against the Houthis in Yemen, the United States and regional countries halted the fighting in Yemen without achieving the goals they had envisioned, which suggests that Cairo was not on the wrong side of this issue.
There was also an American demand regarding the Suez Canal. This demand was public and extremely crude, and it concerned the passage of American ships through the Egyptian Canal (military and commercial) without fees, which was met with rejection from the Egyptian side.
The multiplicity of these positions in a short period of time, as the current US administration has only been in existence for a few months, has led to a cooling of relations between Cairo and Washington.
It’s also important to note that the conflict in Gaza has been closely linked to the issue, a matter that has been neglected on regional and international agendas. This has impacted Egypt’s role in the region, pushing it toward a kind of stagnation as a result of the ongoing, absurd conflict between Hamas and Israel, and there appears to be no way out of this conflict.
