The Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs organized a symposium entitled “The Peace Process and Reconstruction in Afghanistan”, on May 4^th, 2019; with the participation of the Afghan Ambassador to Cairo, Mohammad Moheq; Ambassador Hani Salah, the Ambassador of Egypt to Afghanistan; Mr. Al-Sayed Hani, council’s member; Dr. Mohamed Fayez Farahat, researcher at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies (ACPSS). The symposium was moderated by Ambassador Dr. Ezzat Saad, Director of the Council, in the attendance of a number of ambassadors and experts from among the council members.

During the symposium, a number of themes were reviewed as follows:

– Causes of the military solution failure in Afghanistan: although 18 years had passed since the US military intervention in the country.

–  Peace process developments and fate: prerequisites for the success chances of the current peace process.

– Also highlighting on the Egyptian-Afghan relations that began more than 90 years ago and which has witnessed historical periods of political, cultural, and security cooperation between both sides, as well as cooperation between the intelligence agencies of the two countries.

The symposium was concluded by emphasizing that the peace process is still facing many internal challenges, namely: power structure, the change of social fabric, the emergence of parallel economy, spread of corruption, and ideological conflicts; and the external challenges consist in regional and international interventions by some powers seeking the enhancement of their influence and the protection of their interests.