Cairo

Egypt's government on 2 August urged domestic and foreign outlets to report accurately on the Damietta drone attack, without naming the coverage it was responding to, and said no investigative findings would be released before its inquiry concludes. The strike hit an American-owned gas vessel moored at the Egyptian terminal on 29 July.

The caution follows conflicting claims about the same attack: two Iranian officials told the New York Times it used Iranian drones, while Iran's own foreign minister publicly calls it an Israeli false flag. Naming a culprit now would force Cairo to respond to whichever side it accuses, so it is keeping the file open while Tehran and Israel argue over blame on its own territory.

Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi met his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty in Cairo on 11 May, one of three separate meetings that day alongside Turkey and the Netherlands. Egypt was the most operationally significant of the three: Cairo has previously helped facilitate US-Iran backchannel contacts alongside Pakistan.

The visit read as insurance rather than a primary track. Pakistan-led talks remained the main channel, with a second Islamabad round still unconvened, but Iran used Cairo to build an alternative route in case Trump's return from Beijing on 15 May tilted toward military action rather than a deal. For Egypt, hosting the contact reaffirms a mediating role it has held since the 1970s, even as its own economy stays exposed to Suez Canal traffic disrupted by the wider conflict.