Hesham Youssef

Hesham Youssef

ByMelanie Meimoun

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…

Egypt–Israel Relations: Between Strategic Necessity and Enduring Suspicion

Egypt–Israel Relations: Between Strategic Necessity and Enduring Suspicion

ByMelanie Meimoun

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,…