ISLAMABAD (Kashmir English): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has left for Egypt to participate in the Sharm El-Sheikh Peace Summit and the signing ceremony of the Gaza peace deal, aimed at putting an end to the prevailing humanitarian and security crisis in the besieged ghetto.
The prime minister has visited at the invitation of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and US President Donald Trump, who will co-chair the high-level meeting on Monday.
Following information from the Foreign Office, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will be accompanied on the visit by Senior Minister Ishaq Dar and other top-tier ministers.
The Sharm El-Sheikh Peace Summit, also called the Gaza peace accords signing ceremony, represents the culmination of close political efforts initiated last month on the sidelines of the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
Pakistan, together with Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Indonesia, and Turkiye, actively took part in those interactions with a view to achieving a comprehensive and sustainable ceasefire in Gaza.
On September 23, Prime Minister Shehbaz attended a summit-level meeting on Gaza, chaired by President Trump, where Arab and Islamic nations’ leaders welcomed the initiative of the US president to bring an end to the war.
In a statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), the prime minister’s attendance at the summit was characterized as an expression of Pakistan’s long and unshakeable solidarity with the Palestinian people and their cause for self-determination.
“Pakistan also hopes that the forthcoming summit will set the stage for the complete Israeli withdrawal, the safeguarding of Palestinian civilians, the halting of displacement, and the rebuilding of Gaza,” the statement continued.
It said Pakistan remains committed to “a viable political process of achieving an independent, viable, and contiguous State of Palestine, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital, based on pre-1967 borders, in accordance with pertinent UN resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative.”
The Sharm El-Sheikh Summit is anticipated to lead to the signing of a peace agreement formally, a major milestone in Middle East stability following two years of war in Gaza.
