Egypt, EU Coordinate on Reviving Palestinian-Israeli Peace Negotiations

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry meets EU Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process Sven Koopmans. (Egyptian foreign ministry)
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry meets EU Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process Sven Koopmans. (Egyptian foreign ministry)
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Egypt, EU Coordinate on Reviving Palestinian-Israeli Peace Negotiations

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry meets EU Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process Sven Koopmans. (Egyptian foreign ministry)
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry meets EU Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process Sven Koopmans. (Egyptian foreign ministry)

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met on Sunday with EU Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process Sven Koopmans amid the Arab nation’s continued efforts to revive internationally-supported negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis.

“Receiving Koopmans in Cairo, Shoukry affirmed Egypt’s aspiration to continue cooperation with the EU during the coming period to push forward the path for peace in the Middle East,” the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Their meeting was held a month after Israel and Palestinian factions agreed on an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

“Egypt will continue its efforts to consolidate the ceasefire in Gaza and to achieve the desired calm and stability,” the statement confirmed, adding that Cairo will also support reconstruction efforts and meeting the development needs of Palestinians.

Egypt’s top diplomat also conveyed to Koopmans the importance of providing a conducive environment and a true will to get the wheel of negotiations moving again.

“Shoukry stressed the importance of having a real will and an appropriate atmosphere for urgently reviving negotiations that would lead to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within the borders demarcated on June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital,” said foreign ministry spokesperson Ahmed Hafez.

Hafez reiterated that Shoukry’s message aligns with international resolutions and works to advocate comprehensive peace and justice in the region.

He also said he looks forward to the EU offering the needed and multifaceted support to the Palestinian cause.

Moreover, Hafez highlighted Koopmans’ recognition of “Egypt’s supportive role for peace efforts in the Middle East.”

Egypt helped mediate the ceasefire in Gaza, and it continues to back efforts for achieving Palestinian reconciliation.

Koopmans voiced his aspiration to coordinate and consult with Egypt to support current efforts to advance peace.



Sudan PM Vows to Rebuild Khartoum on First Visit to War-torn Capital

Kamil Idris, a former UN official who was appointed in May as prime minister by Sudan's leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, addresses people and local fighters supporting the Sudanese army who came to cheer him on, during a visit in Omdurman on July 19, 2025. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid / AFP)
Kamil Idris, a former UN official who was appointed in May as prime minister by Sudan's leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, addresses people and local fighters supporting the Sudanese army who came to cheer him on, during a visit in Omdurman on July 19, 2025. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid / AFP)
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Sudan PM Vows to Rebuild Khartoum on First Visit to War-torn Capital

Kamil Idris, a former UN official who was appointed in May as prime minister by Sudan's leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, addresses people and local fighters supporting the Sudanese army who came to cheer him on, during a visit in Omdurman on July 19, 2025. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid / AFP)
Kamil Idris, a former UN official who was appointed in May as prime minister by Sudan's leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, addresses people and local fighters supporting the Sudanese army who came to cheer him on, during a visit in Omdurman on July 19, 2025. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid / AFP)

Sudan's Prime Minister Kamil Idris on Saturday pledged to rebuild Khartoum, ravaged by more than two years of war, as he made his first visit to the capital since assuming office in May.

Touring Khartoum's destroyed infrastructure earlier, the new premier outlined mass repair projects in anticipation of the return of at least some of the over 3.5 million people who fled the violence, AFP reported.

"Khartoum will return as a proud national capital," Idris said, according to Sudan's state news agency.

Sudan's army chief and de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who appointed Idris, landed Saturday at Khartoum's airport, recaptured by the army in March after nearly two years of occupation by their rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

The war between the Sudanese army and the RSF began in the heart of the capital in April 2023, quickly tearing the city apart.

Tens of thousands are estimated to have been killed in the once-bustling capital, and reconstruction is expected to be a herculean feat, with the government putting the cost at $700 billion nationwide, with Khartoum alone accounting for around half of that.

The army-aligned government, which moved to Port Sudan on the Red Sea early in the war and still operates from there, has begun to plan the return of ministries to Khartoum even as fighting rages on in other parts of the country.

Authorities have begun operations to properly bury the bodies still missing around the city, clear thousands of unexploded ordinance and resume bureaucratic services.

On a visit to Sudan's largest oil refinery, the Al-Jaili plant just north of Khartoum, Idris promised that "national institutions will come back even better than they were before".

The refinery -- now a blackened husk -- was recaptured in January, but the facility which once processed 100,000 barrels a day will take years and at least $1.3 billion to rebuild, officials told AFP.

Cabinet stumbles

The UN expects some two million people will return to Khartoum this year, but those coming back have found an unrecognizable city.

The scale of looting is unprecedented, aid workers say, with evidence of paramilitary fighters ripping copper wire out of power lines before they left.

Vast areas of the city remain without power, and the damage to water infrastructure has caused a devastating cholera outbreak. Health authorities recorded up to 1,500 cases a day last month, according to the UN.

"Water is the primary concern and obstacle delaying the return of citizens to their homes," Idris said on Saturday.

A career diplomat and former UN official, Idris is building a government that critics warn could put up a veneer of civilian rule, in addition to facing challenges within its own camp.

In 2020, during a short-lived transition to civilian rule, the government in Khartoum signed a peace agreement with Sudanese armed groups, allocating a share of cabinet posts to signatories.

All but three cabinet posts are now filled, and armed groups currently fighting alongside the army have retained their representation in Idris's government.

But reports that Idris had sought to appoint technocrats in their place have created tensions.

Some of the armed groups, known together as the Joint Forces, have been integral in defending North Darfur state capital El-Fasher, which has been besieged by the paramilitaries since May of last year.

If the RSF succeeds in taking El-Fasher, it will control all of the vast western region of Darfur, cementing the fragmentation of the country.

Despite the army securing the capital, as well as the country's north and east, war still rages in Sudan's west and south, where the RSF is accused of killing hundreds of civilians in recent days.

Sudan is suffering the world's largest hunger and displacement crises, with nearly 25 million people in dire food insecurity and over 10 million internally displaced across the country.

A further four million people have fled across borders.