The Council hosted on January 14, 2020, Mr. David Makovsky, director of The Washington Institute’s Project on the Middle East Peace Process at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, to talk about the chances of the peace process between the Palestinians and the Israelis and the future prospects, in addition to the developments taking place in the Middle East and the ways of establishing peace among the regional powers.

The guest emphasized that achieving peace in the region and finding a just solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will not be achieved as long as the political process remains stalled among Palestinian factions, especially as Fatah and Hamas have different agendas and mechanisms for achieving their political visions. And the Arabs should exert more efforts to unify the Palestinian line to start achieving a true peace process in the region.

He also noted the importance of adopting strategic visions for achieving peace in the region, and working towards resolving the differences and any causes aggravating them, on top of which is resolving the differences between the Gulf states and Iran, which can only be achieved through exerting real efforts to contain the differences and launching a real dialog based on mutual respect for the sovereignty of states, equality and non-interference in their internal affairs.

In this regard, Mr. David called on Egypt to play a greater role in dealing with these crises and in formulating visions for resolving the crises of the region, particularly the peace process between the Palestinians and the Israelis in light of the good relations that Egypt has with both sides of the conflict.