<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, and the President of the United States, Donald Trump, greeted each other with smiles and cordially during their brief meeting this Monday in Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt) to participate in the official signing of the Middle East Peace Plan, the ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and Hamas and sponsored by the governments of Egypt, the United States, Qatar, and Turkey.</strong></h4> The brief meeting, lasting barely fifteen seconds, in which both leaders appeared smiling and cordial, exchanging a few words, took place just days after Donald Trump proposed Spain's expulsion from NATO for its refusal to raise defense spending to 5%, a path not provided for in the Alliance Treaty itself, which establishes voluntary withdrawal as the only procedure for doing so. Pedro Sánchez's government reacted by recalling that "Spain is a full and committed member of NATO" and calling for "maximum calm." This is the first direct bilateral meeting since Trump's arrival at the White House in February 2024. The two leaders met in June at the NATO Summit in The Hague, but did not greet each other. Nor did they do so when they met again during the recent High-Level Week of the UN General Assembly, held in September in New York. In Sharm el-Sheikh, Trump similarly welcomed the nearly 30 participating international leaders, including UN Secretary-General António Guterres. <h5><strong>The event</strong></h5> "Spain faces this moment with hope and recognizes the fundamental role of the decisive mediation of the United States, Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey, whose leadership has been key in bringing positions closer together and moving toward peace," declared Moncloa in a press release on the occasion of Sánchez's participation in the Sharm el-Sheikh event. It also "highlights the solidarity of the civilian population in the face of the suffering in Gaza, which has mobilized an unprecedented wave of humanity, especially in our country." In the press release, the Government of Spain "welcomes the release of the hostages and prisoners and emphasizes that the challenge now is to ensure the full implementation of the political, security, and humanitarian provisions of the agreement, and calls for opening a path toward just and lasting peace in the region." To this end, the Executive highlights three priorities: providing urgent and massive humanitarian aid; consolidating peace and security measures to avoid a new conflict, based on the Arab League Peace Plan and the New York Declaration; and moving toward the implementation of the two-state solution, "taking concrete and irreversible steps toward the creation of a viable Palestinian State, while guaranteeing the security and full recognition of the State of Israel." "The Government of Spain reaffirms its defense of the multilateral system and international law, and evokes the spirit of the 1991 Madrid Conference and the Oslo Accords, calling for this moment to become a turning point toward a future of peace, justice, and coexistence in the Middle East," the press release concluded. Pedro Sánchez was accompanied at the event by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares. "A path for hope is opening up in the Middle East," he wrote on social media. "We are working to consolidate the ceasefire in Gaza and achieve lasting peace and security for all in the Middle East with the two-state solution." <h5><strong>The signing</strong></h5> The ceasefire agreement document was signed by Donald Trump; Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi; Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Zani; and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. No representatives from Israel or Hamas, the two warring parties, were present. Turkish government sources stated that President Erdogan, through diplomatic efforts and with the support of other heads of state and government, prevented the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had been invited by Trump. However, the Israeli government stated that his absence was due to the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah. In his speech at the event, Donald Trump asserted that the agreement "will be fulfilled." "There have been great agreements, but none like this one," he declared, because it has helped avoid "a Third World War." “Reconstruction in Gaza begins. Perhaps that is the easiest part: we have already done the hardest part, and the rest will come by itself. We all know how to rebuild and build better than anyone in the world,” he concluded. In addition to Pedro Sánchez, the event was also attended by the King of Jordan, the Presidents of France and Turkey, the Emir of Qatar, the German Chancellor, the Prime Ministers of Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, among others. For her part, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, declared that the agreement represents “a historic milestone” and underscored the EU's readiness to contribute to the success of the initiative. In turn, the President of the European Council, António Costa, emphasized the collective commitment to moving towards a lasting peace, based on the two-state solution, and reiterated the EU's support for the reconstruction of Gaza and the reform of the Palestinian Authority.
