Pedro Sánchez abruptly abandoned the Columbus Day celebrations this Sunday to go to the Moncloa Palace to prepare for an emergency trip to Egypt. This Monday the official signing ceremony of the call will be held there. Peace Plan to the Near Eastfollowing the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
“He has been invited by the Governments of Egypt and the United States”according to government sources. The summit, in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheikh, will be co-chaired by the American president Donald Trump and the host, the Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al Sisi. About twenty heads of state and government will attend, according to the Egyptian organization.
“Spain recognizes the fundamental role of United States, Egypt, Qatar and Türkiyewhose leadership has been key to bringing positions closer together and moving towards peace,” they say from Moncloa. The Government also highlights “the response of civil society”, whose “solidarity in the face of suffering in Gaza has been exemplary, especially in Spain.”
In addition to Sánchez, the British Prime Minister, among others, is expected to attend. Keir Starmer; the president of France, Emmanuel Macron and the prime minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni and the German chancellor Friedrich Merz. The president of Türkiye will go on behalf of the Arab and Islamic countries, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the king Abdullah II from Jordan, among others. For the United Nations, the Secretary General, Antonio Guterres. The European Union is represented by the president of the European Council, Antonio Costa.
Israel has assured that it will not send any delegation to the meeting.
Delegations from Germany, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Indonesia, Japan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Hungary, India, El Salvador, Cyprus, Greece, Bahrain and Kuwait, Canada and Iran have also been invited.
Ceasefire controlled by the United States
Spain was the first European country to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. The Government says to face this moment with hope and “with the desire to contribute to solving the great challenges that the region faces“The first thing is, they say, to ensure that the agreement is fully implemented in its “political, security and humanitarian” dimensions.
This Sunday, hundreds of trucks with food and medicine began to enter through Rafah, the southern crossing of the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces have withdrawn to the “yellow line” that divides Gaza in two, to allow Hamas and Islamic Jihad the release of the twenty Israeli hostages still alive. In exchange, Israel must release nearly two thousand Palestinian prisoners.
The road map for Gaza
At the Egyptian meeting, Trump will solemnize the United States’ commitment to make viable the road map towards the definitive end of the war in Gaza and the beginning of the reconstruction of the Strip, which would be followed by a transitional period of international protectorate and technocratic government. Later, Gaza would eventually be transferred to the legitimate representative of the Palestinians, the Palestinian National Authority.
File – File photo of a Hamas demonstration in Gaza / Mohammed Talatene/dpa – Archive
It will be the Pentagon the one that supervises the progress of the different stages of this roadmap through a “Civil-Military Coordination Center” for which the United States will send 200 soldiers and in which commanders from other countries such as Qatar, Egypt or Turkey could participate.
