CAIRO, Egypt: The United States and Egypt’s top diplomats reviewed preparations for a summit in Sharm El-Sheikh that will bring the two countries’ presidents together with other leaders to discuss implementing the first phase of a Gaza ceasefire deal.
US President Donald Trump and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi are expected to lead the summit, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Saturday, without indicating when it would take place.
Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday discussed arrangements for the gathering, including for “international participation in the Sharm El-Sheikh summit, as well as preparations for the implementation of the first phase of the (ceasefire) deal”.
French President Emmanuel Macron is set to travel to Egypt on Monday to back the deal, the Elysee Palace said, while Spain’s Pedro Sanchez and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni are also expected to attend, their offices told AFP.
Earlier, Trump had said he would meet a “lot of leaders” in Egypt on Monday to discuss the future of devastated Gaza.
Israel has agreed to the truce plan put forward by Trump, and on Friday pulled troops back from several areas of Gaza, setting the clock in motion for hostages held by Hamas to be released within 72 hours.
Alongside the United States and Qatar, Egypt has played a key role in mediating talks that eventually led to the latest ceasefire deal.
Hamas Expects ‘Difficulties’ in Peace Talks
Meanwhile, a senior Hamas official told AFP on Saturday that negotiations over phase two of Trump’s Gaza peace plan will be complex and difficult.
“The second phase of the Trump plan, as it is clear from the points themselves, contains many complexities and difficulties,” political bureau member Hossam Badran said in an interview.
Badran said Hamas is ready to fight back if Trump’s peace deal unravels and hostilities with Israel resume in the Gaza Strip.
“We hope that we will not return to (war), but our Palestinian people and the resistance force will undoubtedly confront and use all their capabilities to repel this aggression if this battle is imposed,” Badran told AFP.
The Hamas official told AFP that the Palestinian group would not take part in the formal signing of the Gaza peace deal in Egypt.
“The matter of the official signing — we will not be involved,” Badran said, adding that Hamas “acted principally through… Qatari and Egyptian mediators” during ceasefire talks in Egypt.
