Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, center right, welcomes Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas upon arrival at Baghdad International Airport ahead of the 34th Arab League summit, in Baghdad, Iraq. AP
In March, at an emergency summit in Cairo, Arab leaders endorsed Egypt's plan for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip without displacing its 2.3 million residents.
Saturday's summit comes after Israel unilaterally ended the January ceasefire with renewed attacks, resuming its war on Gaza, which has claimed over 53,000 lives, mostly women and children, since October 2023.
Israel has recently intensified its genocide in Gaza, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promising further escalation. As Israel's blockade of food and humanitarian aid continues for nearly 10 weeks, global leaders, the UN, and aid organizations are sounding alarms over an impending famine.
The Baghdad meeting was upstaged by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tour in the region earlier in the week.
Trump’s visit did not usher in a deal for a new ceasefire in Gaza as many had hoped, but he grabbed headlines by meeting with new Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa — who had once fought against U.S. forces in Iraq — and promising to remove U.S. sanctions imposed on Syria.
Al-Sharaa was not attending the summit in Baghdad, where Syria’s delegation was headed by Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani.
Iraqi Shia militias and political factions are wary of al-Sharaa’s past as a Sunni militant and had pushed back against his invitation to the summit.
During Syria’s conflict that began in March 2011, several Iraqi Shia militias fought alongside the forces of former Syrian President Bashar Assad, making al-Sharaa today a particularly sensitive figure for them.
Iraq, which has strong — and sometimes conflicting — ties with both the United States and Iran, has sought to strike a difficult balance between them and to position itself as a regional mediator.
An Iraqi political official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Iran’s Quds Force commander Esmail Ghaani had paid a visit to Baghdad prior to the summit and “conveyed messages of support for the Iranian-American negotiations” for a nuclear deal and a demand for the lifting of crippling sanctions on Iran.
*This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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