CAIRO, January 20. /TASS/. US President-elect Donald Trump can help bring peace to the Middle East, as evidenced by the Gaza ceasefire reached ahead of his January 20 inauguration, Mohamed al-Shahawi, a member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs (ECFA), has told TASS.
"I am certain that Donald Trump will play an important role in containing escalation in the Middle East. Even before he returned to the White House, a ceasefire agreement was reached in Gaza and a truce is now in effect there," al-Shahawi emphasized. He believes that this happened "thanks to the pressure that the US president-elect exerted on the parties concerned."
In his opinion, Trump can also indirectly end the current crisis in the Red Sea, triggered by attacks on civilian ships by Yemen's rebellious Ansar Allah (Houthis) movement. Al-Shahawi believes that "the current problems with shipping in the Red Sea will end once Israel’s aggression against Gaza stops." The Egyptian expert is convinced that the establishment of a lasting peace in the Palestinian enclave will be reason enough for the Houthis "to stop firing rockets and drones at civilian ships" and "stability will return to the Red Sea."
Trump's role in Gaza deal
On January 7 this year, Donald Trump warned that "all hell would break loose" in the Middle East, if Israeli hostages held in Gaza were not released before his inauguration. On January 12, US Vice President-elect James David Vance explained that Trump meant aggressive sanctions in the Middle East against those who "support terrorist organizations."
After that, Qatar's head of government and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al-Thani announced on January 15 that Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement had reached an agreement on Gaza as a result of mediation efforts by Washington, Doha and Cairo. Trump's transition team hurried to take credit for the achievement. However, sitting president Joe Biden disagreed and emphasized that the plan for the agreement had been worked out and agreed upon by his negotiators, although it would be implemented largely by the next US administration.
Long-awaited agreement
The situation in the Middle East escalated dramatically after armed Hamas supporters from the Gaza Strip infiltrated into Israeli territory on October 7, 2023, killing residents in border communities and taking more than 240 hostages. In response, Israel launched a military operation in the enclave with the aim to wipe out the Hamas military and political structure and secure the release of all those abducted.
On January 15, mediators announced an agreement to release the hostages held in the Gaza Strip and introduce a ceasefire. The first phase of the deal, according to preliminary agreements, was supposed to take effect on Sunday at 6:30 am GMT. However, due to Hamas' delay in handing over a list of hostages it was willing to be released on the first day, the ceasefire in Gaza took effect at 9:30 am GMT.