In an extended seminar held in the council’s headquarter on April the 30th, 2017, different points of views were expressed regarding the new US administration and the Middle East peace process. Members of the council, academicians and Arab ambassadors, including Palestinian politicians, were presenting.
The symposium was lengthy and was divided into two sessions: the first was entitled “The United Sates and the peace process”, the second was entitled “The Arab initiative to advance the peace process in the light of regional and international developments”.
The Ambassador Dr. Barakat el-Fara, the former Ambassador of Palestine to Egypt and its permanent representative in the Arab League, and the Ambassador Hazem Abou Shanab, member of the revolutionary council of Fatah, represented the Palestinian side.
The participants then presented their views on this issue, including General Ibrahim Al-Duwairi, Head of the Israeli Studies Unit in the Council. After that, the first session of the meeting began with Ambassador Sayed Abu Zeid, who discussed the developments in the US role in the Middle East peace process.
The session included the interventions from Ambassador Dr. Barakat El-Fara and Ambassador Hazem Abou Shanab followed by discussions in which Ambassador Rakha Hassan, Ambassador Jihan Allam, Ambassador Mohamed El-Shazly, Ambassador Badr-el-din Zayed, Dr. Ahmed Abu Doma and Ambassador Ihab Wahba took part.
At the closing session, Ambassador Dr. Ezzat Saad pointed out that Trump is trying to outline a specific vision through the meetings he holds and that the National Security Adviser and the secretary of defense emphasize on the fact that the continuing state of chaos in the region is due to the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict, even some Israeli rightists find that Trump has violated their expectations.
