October 2008: On October 5, an Egyptian delegation, including Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, became the first high- level Egyptian delegation to visit Iraq since the 2005 killing of Egypt’s envoy to Iraq. During the visit, Gheit said that Egypt would soon reopen an embassy in Iraq.
As part of ongoing Egyptian mediations between various Palestinian factions, Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman met with a senior Hamas delegation on October 7. The meeting followed earlier talks between various Palestinian factions, including Fatah, hosted by the Egyptian government.
On a visit to Egypt on October 23, Israeli President Shimon Peres voiced his support for the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative. Peres and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak also discussed efforts being taken to release captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Egypt has hosted various Lebanese delegations and leaders, including Walid Jumblatt, the head of Lebanon’s Progressive Socialist Party, and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, during the month of October.
August 2008: Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing with Gaza for two days in late August, allowing more than 2,500 people to leave and more than 1,000 people to enter. Egyptian authorities said the move, meant as a goodwill gesture ahead of Ramadan, would allow those with foreign residency permits and humanitarian cases to leave the Gaza Strip.
On August 27, Gheit and Lebanese President Michel Suleiman discussed Lebanese- Israeli tensions in a meeting in Beirut.
July 2008: Mubarak and French President Nicolas Sarkozy co-hosted the first meeting of the Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean. The project planned to build on the original Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (Euro-Med), or Barcelona Process, and aimed to develop practical projects in different sectors, including environment, infrastructure, civil protection, alternative energy, education and business. At the inauguration ceremony, Israeli and Syrian leaders sat at the same table for the first time.
June 2008: Egypt brokered a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, which it had been working on since early March. The truce began with both sides halting violence. Later stages included the gradual easing of Gaza border crossings, renewed negotiations for the release of Shalit and the eventual opening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
March 2008: Mubarak and Saudi King Abdullah led a boycott by eleven Arab leaders of the Arab League summit in Damascus, claiming that Syria played a role in prolonging the 18-month political crisis in Lebanon.
January 2008: Egypt allowed 2,000 pilgrims returning from Mecca to enter Gaza on January 2, the same day that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met with Mubarak in Cairo.
On January 8, President Bush began a trip to the Middle East, which ended with a visit to Egypt. An administration official said that Gaza was high on Bush’s plan for his three-hour meeting with Mubarak in Sharm El-Sheikh, the most brief of his eight-day trip. Following the meeting, Bush did not directly criticize Mubarak’s record on allowing political freedoms, despite previous U.S. criticism.
On January 23, Hamas militants breached the Rafah border crossing, allowing tens of thousands of Palestinians to pour into Egypt. Though Mubarak initially welcomed the Palestinians from Gaza, within days he had deployed Egyptian security forces along the border and pressured Hamas to stem the flow of people crossing the border.
December 2007: Egypt coordinated with Saudi Arabia and Hamas to allow 2,000 Palestinians to leave Gaza on a pilgrimage to Mecca, despite Abbas making separate arrangements for a different list of Palestinians to go on the pilgrimage.
November 2007: Egypt attended the Annapolis conference, convened by the United States with the goal of reaching an agreement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by the end of 2008, alongside 53 representatives of other countries and international organizations.
September 2007: Egypt allowed Palestinians stranded in Egypt, including senior Hamas officials, to return to Gaza via the Rafah border crossing. Egypt told Israel that 28 people "broke through" the border. Hamas claimed the number totaled 85.
For information on Egyptian mediation efforts from December 2003-July 2007, see the previous Background Basics from August 8, 2007