The summit on Monday of more than 20 world leaders on the shores of the Red Sea promises the pomp and circumstance that President Trump is known to enjoy, with palm-lined streets adorned with banners of his face and dozens of world leaders in attendance.
The conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, is not scheduled to last long — only two hours — but Egypt’s presidency has portrayed it as offering an “agreement to end the war in Gaza.”
Beyond those lofty ambitions, a messier reality lies ahead.
When Mr. Trump jets away from the Middle East on Monday, after lightning stops in Israel and Egypt, regional powers will be left to resolve the thornier details — not least whether Hamas will disarm, and whether Israel will fully withdraw from Gaza.
Settling those issues will be critical to ensuring that Mr. Trump’s initial peace proposal, presented in September, leads to a sustainable end to the war, which has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians. The war was ignited by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 abducted.
“The world finally got something they have long wanted: U.S. buy-in,” said Aziz Alghashian, a lecturer with Naif Arab University for Security Sciences in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. “But how to keep the American weight there, while they try to work out the details, is the harder part. There hasn’t seemed to be any longer-term planning taking place.”
Arab diplomats regard this summit as an opportunity to persuade Mr. Trump to understand the concerns of regional countries, who he will rely on to ensure that the cease-fire deal holds.
Egypt, for instance, is crucial to carrying out Mr. Trump’s 20-point peace plan, which envisions the reopening of Gaza’s border with Egypt to allow in crucial aid, and an exit for those who seek it.
But Egypt does not want a huge influx of refugees across its borders. Egyptian officials have long feared such a mass flight of people, for a number of reasons.
For one, they do not want to be accused of helping Israel to displace Palestinians. But domestic security concerns are just as critical. If Hamas militants managed to cross the border with refugees, it could provoke an Israeli attack on Egyptian soil.
“The challenges are not really in the first stage of the agreement,” said Aymen Abdel Wahab, deputy director of the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, a think tank in Cairo. “Egypt will see more challenges in the second stage, as it works on the security sector and maintaining the peace.”
The Gulf countries will also want to be heard, with bilateral meetings expected on the summit’s sidelines.
Those countries are likely to play a leading role in bankrolling the rebuilding of Gaza, but they have been wary of comments made this week by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who said that the military campaign in Gaza was “not over.”
The Gulf countries fear a situation in which they are effectively funding Gaza’s reconstruction even as Israeli operations continue, said Mr. Alghashian.
They have also been focused on getting Mr. Trump to embrace a role for the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, something that Israel has rejected. The authority administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and considers itself the rightful government of any future Palestinian state, and Saudi Arabia, in particular, feels it needs an invitation from the authority to support efforts to stabilize or rebuild Gaza.
“This is really necessary to elicit support from Arab and Muslim states,” said Mr. Alghashian. “Otherwise it looks like they are funding a new form of occupation — and that is exactly what they don’t want.”
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