Abbas calls for Hamas to give up power in Gaza
Abbas, the Palestinian president, called on Hamas to abandon power in Gaza and along with other militant groups to hand over weapons to the Palestinian Authority.
Hamas seized control of Gaza from Abbas’ Western-backed Palestinian Authority in 2007, and reconciliation attempts between the rivals have repeatedly failed.
The Baghdad meeting was upstaged by US 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 US forces in Iraq — and promising to remove US sanctions imposed on Syria.
Al-Sharaa did not attend the summit in Baghdad, where Syria’s delegation was headed by Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani. Iraqi Shiite 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 Shiite militias fought alongside the forces of former Syrian President Bashar Assad, making al-Sharaa today a particularly sensitive figure for them.
Arab leaders back Syrian unity
The statement issued after the summit said Arab leaders back Syria’s unity and reject foreign intervention in the country. They condemned Israel’s airstrikes and land incursions into Syria over the past months.
They praised Trump’s plans to lift the sanctions imposed on Syria and the easing of European sanctions recently saying that would “speed up recovery and the reconstruction process” in the war-torn country.
An Iraqi official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to media, said that Iran’s Quds Force commander Esmail Ghaani paid a visit to Baghdad prior to the summit and “conveyed messages of support for the Iranian-American negotiations” to reach a nuclear deal and lifting of crippling sanctions on Iran.
