Sharm el-sheikh: 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 Anadolu Agency, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi welcomed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, 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.
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 were also among the arrivals. 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 joined the gathering 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 traveled to Sharm el-Sheikh for the peace summit. Delegations from Paraguay and the Netherlands also made their way to the Egyptian city, though the level of participation was not specified by the channel.
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 stated that 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 resulted in the deaths of more than 67,800 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, leaving the area largely uninhabitable.