Ambassador Hesham Youssef is a distinguished, former Egyptian diplomat and international peacebuilding expert, with more than thirty years of experience navigating some of the Middle East’s most complex political and humanitarian challenges. He began his diplomatic career at Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1985, serving in the Egyptian Embassy in Canada (1988–1992) and the Egyptian Mission in Geneva (1995–1999). Between 1992…
In this episode, Dominic Bowen and Hesham Youssef discuss the growing tensions and international risks between Egypt and Israel, the fragile state of regional diplomacy, and the pressures placed on long-standing agreements such as the Camp David Accords. Find out more about why Egypt views forced displacement from Gaza as an existential red line, how humanitarian…
Very few bilateral relationships in the Middle East are as paradoxical as the one between Egypt and Israel. The two countries are bound together historically, geographically and diplomatically, one could say. They share what is today the region’s longest-standing peace treaty -the 1979 Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty-, but their relationship is characterized by strategic cautiousness and distance. Today, cooperation between Cairo and Jerusalem,…
