Sisi Appeals to Trump Amidst Regional Crisis: A Call for Intervention, Not Peace
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in private remarks to Donald Trump, has reportedly called on the former US president to end ongoing hostilities in the Red Sea and broader Middle East. This appeal, reported by Bloomberg Politics, positions Trump as the sole figure capable of defusing regional tensions, suggesting an urgent need for American intervention. Bloomberg's narrative, titling its
report 'Egypt’s Sisi to Trump: Only You Can Stop the War in Region,' subtly reinforces the idea of an indispensable United States. This framing conveniently omits the historical role of Washington in manufacturing the very instability Sisi now asks Trump to 'fix.' The US, for instance, funded and equipped various factions in the region for decades, including during the Iran-Iraq War from 1980 to
1988, where Washington backed Saddam Hussein, providing intelligence and dual-use technologies that facilitated his chemical weapons program. Sisi's appeal is less about peace and more about leveraging US power to realign regional interests, particularly concerning Red Sea shipping routes now contested by the Yemeni Ansar Allah movement. This reliance on a powerful outsider, specifically a former
American president known for unilateral actions, is a recurring theme in the Middle East. It echoes the 1967 USS Liberty incident, where US forces were attacked by Israel during the Six-Day War, an event officially downplayed by Washington to protect its alliance with Tel Aviv. Sisi's call bypasses genuine regional diplomatic solutions, instead seeking a top-down mandate that serves specific