World leaders arrive in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh for Gaza peace summit

CAIRO / ISTANBUL

Heads of state and senior officials from several countries arrived in Egypt’s Red Sea city of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday to participate in an international peace summit on Gaza.

According to Egypt’s state-run Al-Qahera News Channel, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi welcomed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of the summit opening.

Also arriving were French President Emmanuel Macron, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Pakistani Prime Minister Mohammad Shehbaz Sharif, and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit also arrived at the summit venue.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al Busaidi, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, and President of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) Gianni Infantino also arrived in Sharm el-Sheikh for the peace summit.

Delegations from Paraguay and the Netherlands also arrived in the Egyptian city, the channel reported, without specifying the level of participation.

More than 20 world leaders are scheduled to attend the Sharm el-Sheikh summit, which will be co-chaired by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his American counterpart, Donald Trump.

Egypt said the summit aims “to end the war in the Gaza Strip, enhance efforts to bring peace and stability to the Middle East, and usher in a new phase of regional security and stability.”

The first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement took effect on Friday under Trump’s plan to end a two-year Israeli war on the enclave.

Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed more than 67,800 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, leaving the enclave largely uninhabitable.