The talks of the two leaders came only two days after a ten-day truce, brokered by the US, put the brakes on an Israeli campaign in Lebanon, one that has left over 2,000 innocent Lebanese nationals dead and billions of dollars in damage. Sustained Israeli strikes in different parts of Lebanon, especially in the southern part of the Arab country, including on civilian infrastructure in these parts, have also left massive swaths of land in total ruin, displacing hundreds of thousands of people. The displaced have started returning home, even as Israel continues to maintain a presence in most of southern Lebanon, establishing a new demarcation line, around 10 kilometres deep into Lebanese territory.

Called the "Yellow Line", the new frontier mimics a buffer zone created by Israel in Gaza, which overs 50% of the war-devastated Palestinian territory where Israel maintains a presence. Reportedly reserved Sisi's talks with Aoun came only hours after a newspaper supportive of the Lebanese Hezbollah group quoted what it described as "high-level" Egyptian sources as saying that Egyptian officials had relayed their deep concern over the "free concessions" Lebanon was making in the ceasefire negotiations. The sources allegedly told Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar that Sisi had sent Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty to Washington in the hope of reaching a convergent vision that does not involve further concessions, with a clear desire for Cairo to be at the heart of negotiations between Lebanon and Israel.

The ceasefire agreement, brokered by US President Donald Trump, gives Israel the right to take all the necessary measures in self-defence at any time, against planned and imminent attacks. It commits Lebanon to taking "meaningful steps" to prevent Hezbollah and other groups from carrying out attacks against Israeli targets. The same agreement holds Lebanese security forces responsible for Lebanon's security.

Lebanon was at the heart of talks between the Egyptian foreign minister and his US counterpart, Marco Rubio, in Washington on 14 April. A press release from the US Department of State following the meeting did not mention Lebanon. However, Abdelatty called for putting an end to repeated Israeli aggressions against Lebanon, according to a statement by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry about the same meeting.

The Egyptian minister underscored the importance of respecting the unity and ensuring the integrity of Lebanese territories, the Foreign Ministry said. It added that Abdelatty also called for enabling Lebanese state institutions, first and foremost the army, to carry out their missions. These Egyptian demands, analysts in Cairo said, move hand in hand with longstanding Egyptian positions on the empowerment of central states in the face of non-state actors, including Hezbollah.

"Egypt adopts this position, especially in Lebanon's case, to prevent Israel from using actions by any non-state actors in justifying its aggressions against Lebanese territories," retired diplomat Rakha Ahmed Hassan, who is a member of the think tank, Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, told The New Arab. He added that Egypt follows the same policy in all regional states, including in Libya, Syria, Yemen and Somalia. "Egypt's policy has always been clear: supporting central states and state institutions against militias, regardless of the name of these militias," Ambassador Hassan said.

Deep involvement The meeting between the Egyptian foreign minister and his American counterpart took place only two days before he spoke by phone with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. This phone conversation was the latest in a series of Egyptian engagements since the Israeli campaign in Lebanon started on 2 March, in response to missile attacks by Hezbollah on northern Israel. These engagements included a visit by the Egyptian foreign minister to Beirut on 26 March, during which he met President Aoun and a host of other Lebanese figures.

The Egyptian Intelligence Service also opened channels of communication with Hezbollah, almost for the first time openly and directly in recent years, in an apparent Egyptian bid to stop the Israeli war on Lebanon and get Lebanese parties to agree on a formula that can bring an end to the aggression. This was part of wider Egyptian efforts to put an end to the regional conflagration that started with the US-Israeli war on Iran on 28 February, which hit the Egyptian economy hard and threatened to set the region on a course of uncontrollable violence. Cairo contacted alm