On November 21, 2022, ECFA organized a roundtable dialogue on the possible results of the midterm elections for the U.S. Congress that took place on November 8, 2022, on the Biden Administration’s orientations towards the Middle East and Egypt, in which Ambassador Mohamed Tawfiq and Mr. Mohamed Qassem, ECFA members, spoke. Ambassadors: Mounir Zahran, ECFA Chairman, Ezzat Saad, ECFA Director, Jilan Allam, Rakha Hassan, Youssef Al-Sharqawi, Alaa Al-Hadidy, Abdel Rahman Salah, Mohamed Mounir, Adel Al-Salousi, Dr. Yousry Abo Shady, Dr. Ahmed Abdel-Hafez, and Mr. Ahmed Abo Shady.

The speakers stated that the party system in the United States is very balanced, and is dominated – however – by two large parties (the Democratic and the Republican), despite the presence of other parties, where the rules are formulated and the electoral districts are divided intentionally to prove the dominance and continuity of these two parties, and to prevent the entry or dominance of other parties. Accordingly, the American media machine plays a major role in this process, in what is known as “framing”. While the Democrats lost the House of Representatives in these elections, their media gave the impression that they had made good gains, and that the Republicans had failed to achieve the red wave that they were promoting so heavily prior to the electoral process. Therefore, we can argue that the fact that most of the judges of the Federal Supreme Court are democrats, would achieve a kind of balance in the American interior, especially since the role of the court makes a big difference, particularly in social issues that occupy large segments of American society, such as the issue of abortion. The results of these elections can be summed up in two points: the first: that Trump was unable to extend his control over the Republican Party, given the Republican candidates that Trump supported in the electoral process, to the extent of saying that the upcoming presidential elections will witness a real struggle against Trump within the Republican Party. The second: that the Democratic and Republican parties will be strongly present in the upcoming presidential elections, and that its electoral campaign began since Trump announced his candidacy for it.

Regarding the Middle East, it is noted that the U.S. strategy revolves mainly around Iran, being the one that threatens Washington’s interests in the region. As for Egypt, it can be said that the structure of Egypt-U.S. relations is currently suffering a problematique, as a result of the sharp changes in the international environment, in addition to the expansion of Egyptian circles of interest, to the extent that military cooperation, which is the basis of bilateral relations, has become limited to a completely different vision than in the past, as it cannot fully rely on its defense needs from the United States, especially since the type of weapons that Egypt needs today will not be provided by Washington. In a related context, and in connection with the new international order, the Egyptian state must formulate a future vision to maximize the benefit from the process of economic restructuring in a new form of globalization, similarly to the benefit that Egypt has achieved in the field of energy, through the strategy it has developed for this purpose over the past years.