Excluding Israel and the Palestinians, Trump and Sisi lead celebratory summit to end the war

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and U.S. President Donald Trump will open tomorrow, Monday, at 2:30 p.m. Palestine time the signing ceremony of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. Representatives of Israel, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority were not invited to the event.

Egyptian media reported that leaders from more than 20 countries are expected to participate in the celebratory summit, including: French President Emmanuel Macron, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, as well as leaders from Japan, India, Greece, Cyprus, Bahrain, Kuwait, Canada and El Salvador.

According to international media reports, Iranian President Masoud Bazakhian was also invited, though he is not expected to attend, along with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Representatives from the United Nations and the European Union are also expected to participate.
The summit aims to end the war in the Gaza Strip, bolster efforts to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East, and open a new chapter of regional security and stability, according to a statement from the Egyptian presidency.

The statement added: “This summit comes in light of U.S. President Donald Trump’s vision to achieve peace in the region, and his tireless efforts to end conflicts around the world.

According to media reports, the summit will be held under tight security measures inside the closed Sharm El-Sheikh conference complex. Trump and Sisi will lead the discussions, which will be devoted to several key issues: a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, strengthening an international security arrangement to guarantee the security of Israel’s borders, and establishing an international mechanism to rebuild Gaza led by Arab and Western countries.

The summit is expected to set out the second phase of Trump’s peace plan, under which an international body would be established to oversee the disarmament of Hamas and transfer authority in the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian technocratic body under an international council.

The United States said the conference will address the creation of an international monitoring mechanism to prevent Hamas from returning to power in Gaza, the establishment of an international fund to rehabilitate Gaza’s infrastructure managed by the Arab Bank for Development, opening crossings between Gaza and Egypt and Israel under joint supervision by Egyptian and European officials, and renewing security cooperation between Egypt, Jordan and the United States in the southern region.

Trump and Sisi are also expected to present a broader political initiative that would include a gradual return to political talks on the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — a move that has not yet received official Israeli approval.

Israeli political sources said Israel stayed away from the talks to avoid diplomatic embarrassment and to ensure the participation of Arab states that refuse to sit alongside an Israeli representative.

Hamas and the Palestinian Authority will also be absent from the summit, apparently to avoid upsetting the balance and to prevent a one-sided summit.