Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu‏‏ will be visiting Egypt within a few days on the invitation of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, Yisrael Hayom reported on Thursday.

The trip, the first official visit to Egypt by an Israeli leader in ten years, will take place either in the capital city of Cairo or in the Sinai resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, where several peace talks with the Palestinians were held in the past.

“If Netanyahu’s planned visit to Egypt does take place, President El-Sisi will greet him at the airport with Egyptian and Israeli flags waving next to each another,” a senior official from Egypt’s Foreign Ministry told Yisrael Hayom.

Al-Sisi and Netanyahu will discuss regional issues, especially efforts to cooperate on shared security concerns regarding the Iranian threat following Joe Biden’s win of the White House. Cairo is also reportedly interested in joining peace talks between Israel and Sudan. Egypt shares its southern border with Sudan and the two countries are embroiled in an ongoing border dispute.

The two leaders will also discuss the changes in the region following Israel’s normalization deals with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan. Egyptian officials told Yisrael Hayom that Egypt views Israel’s new ties with Sunni states in the region as extremely significant.

The last official visit to Egypt by an Israeli leader was in January 2011, when Netanyahu met with then-president Hosni Mubarak. Netanyahu also reportedly made a secret unofficial visit to Cairo in 2018.

Egypt became the first Arab country to make peace with Israel in 1979, and the two governments work closely together on security issues. But it has remained a very cold peace and many Egyptians are still deeply opposed to what they call “popular normalization” with Israel. Jordan signed its own deal with Israel in 1994.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)