On the 30th of April 2018, a meeting of the Standing Committee for Arab Affairs, chaired by Ambassador Ihab Wahba, Coordinator of the Committee, was held at the Council’s headquarters. It was attended by Ambassador Ezzat Saad, director of the council and a number of members of the committee, to discuss the Arab summit and the situation in the Arab region as a whole, following the tripartite Western strike on Syria.

The meeting concluded with a number of results as follows:
– The need for more Egyptian-Saudi coordination on all issues of the region, and to stress that the source of the first threat to Arab national security is Israel, not Iran.

– To activate the Egyptian role on the Arab issues, and in order to do so, the meeting recommended the resumption of dialogue between Egypt and Iran and Turkey, where the two countries play significant roles in various files in the region, especially in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen.

– That Russia’s strategic interests in Syria are a priority for the Russian presence there, and if President Putin received assurances from the West that Ukraine will not enter the European Union and will not join NATO, then Russia will have no interest in staying in the Middle East.

– The Arab regimes must move and turn to their brothers and talk to the Syrians, not just the idea of sending troops, as suggested by the Armists, an idea that is not acceptable at the moment.

– The Western tripartite strike on Syria appeared to be marginal and has no value and no effect.

The proof is that the three countries gave early warnings to all the countries there, whether Syria or Russia, and determined the places to be hit, and was not affected by the Russian or Iranian strike, or even the Syrians. It aimed at sending an American message to Russia that the arena will not be left to them and that any arrangements regarding Syria must be the United States in its heart.