A historic day for the Middle East turned into a day dedicated to the glory of Donald Trump. The Sharm el-Sheikh peace conference, attended by around twenty world leaders, quickly turned into a personal celebration of Trump's power, the omnipresent protagonist throughout the day, designed down to the last detail to keep all eyes on him.

One after another, all the leaders greeted a euphoric Trump, while another of the day's key figures, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, told him:"Only you could have achieved this peace."

Trump, accompanied by his team members most closely involved in the negotiations, including his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, spent the entire day flexing his muscles. All the events, both in Israel and Egypt, were organized to make the American president the center of attention.

The US leader had 20 world leaders waiting for him for hours in Sharm el Sheikh—the delay was almost four hours—while he rambled in the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, about himself, his family, and even the state of his daughter Ivanka's marriage to Kushner.

The entire day was like that, a monument to the glory of the US president. So much so that he even joked when Marco Rubio, his Secretary of State, said that this was the most important peace agreement of the last 50 years."Only," said Trump, who had previously boasted in Israel about resolving a"3,000-year-old" conflict.

All the leaders went one by one to greet Trump. Also present was Spaniard Pedro Sánchez, who has become a kind of anti-Trump and to whom the US president himself has addressed some very aggressive words. In The Hague, at the last NATO summit, Trump threatened Spain with large tariffs for refusing to increase defense spending to 5%, something that later came to nothing. And last week, at the White House, he said that Spain should be expelled from NATO for that decision. But it all came to nothing again; and Trump and Sánchez greeted each other normally, even with a certain closeness, shaking hands amid smiles and without any sign of tension.

After accepting the peace agreement and freeing the remaining hostages in Gaza, the implementation of the other points of the plan remains to be seen. Above all, the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave and its reconstruction, in which Trump, who made his fortune as a real estate developer, said he sees a great opportunity.

Trump stated in Sharm el-Sheikh that the second phase of his plan for Gaza “has already begun” and acknowledged that “all the phases are somewhat intertwined.” “Everyone said [that peace in the Middle East] was impossible, [but] it’s going to happen, and it’s happening before your very eyes,” the US president emphasized, standing alongside his Egyptian counterpart, with whom he acknowledged having “very good rapport.”

Objective: transform the region

Rubio, for his part, stated that his intention is not"simply to restore Gaza" but rather "it's about transforming the region." While Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, who traveled again to Egypt with the president and his son-in-law, Kushner, who is closely involved in the ongoing diplomatic efforts, announced that they would be in the region"quite some time" to monitor its implementation. Sisi called the agreement"a great achievement" and indicated that his goal now "is to strengthen the ceasefire" and ensure that it "holds."

Twenty world leaders, including the Big Five European leaders, attended the meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, the site of last week's negotiations between Hamas and Israel that culminated in the agreement on the first phase of Trump's Gaza peace plan. The meeting was attended by 20 leaders from around the world, including the European Union, to broaden international support for the initiative to end the conflict. During the meeting, the countries that mediated the ceasefire—the two organizers, Qatar and Turkey—also signed a document as guarantors of the new roadmap for the Palestinian enclave.

Despite the attendance of some twenty world leaders, the summit was marked by notable absences. Initially, no representation from Palestine or Israel was expected, but on Sunday afternoon, the participation of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was finally announced. On Monday morning, Trump and Sisi extended the invitation during a phone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who declined after initially expressing a willingness to attend, according to the Egyptian presidency. Meanwhile, the leaders of the two major Gulf powers, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed, also did not attend.

Before resuming their indirect negotiations, Hamas and Israel agreed to the general provisions of Trump's Gaza plan. However, reconciling the fine print is one of the most complex aspects, and the agreement reached by the two in Sharm el-Sheikh early Thursday morning concerns only the first phase of the initiative.

The Sharm el-Sheikh summit also allowed Egypt to continue internationalizing Trump's plan for Gaza, which includes particularly sensitive issues such as the future governance and control of the Strip, possibly with international participation.

Following the agreement between Hamas and Israel, and taking advantage of the summit preparations, Cairo has insisted in its talks with world leaders that security arrangements and monitoring of the ceasefire—including the possible deployment of foreign forces—be carried out under the auspices of a UN Security Council resolution or under direct UN supervision. Egypt considers its involvement in the second phase of the ceasefire to be crucial.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, and in parallel with its mediation efforts to halt the violence, Egypt has sought to influence discussions about the day after in the Strip. In October 2023, Cairo hosted its first international summit to address the crisis, but the attempt ended without an agreement. Last March, it organized another summit of the Arab world to close ranks around an alternative plan for Gaza to Trump's initial threat to take over the Strip after expelling its population. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas attended both summits, in which neither Trump nor his predecessor, Joe Biden, participated.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair also attended the summit. The White House plan proposes him as a member of an international board, chaired by Trump, charged with overseeing and monitoring a transitional technocratic government in the Strip, responsible for its initial management in place of Hamas. On Sunday, Blair met in Amman, the Jordanian capital, with Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh to address the US president's initiative and discuss the future of the Palestinian enclave.