Egypt hosts Iran, Turkey leaders for Muslim summit

Amidst regional uncertainty, including the conflict in Gaza and unrest in Syria, Egypt hosted the leaders of Iran and Turkey for an eight-nation meeting on Thursday.

The gathering of the D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation, also known as the Developing-8.

Mahmoud Abbas, the president of Palestine, will attend a special session on Gaza and Syria.

Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey will meet for the first time since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

Iran has traditionally supported Assad’s rule, whereas Turkey has backed the opposition to him.

Pezeshkian, who arrived in Cairo on Wednesday, is the first Iranian president to visit Egypt since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who visited in 2013.

Ahead of his departure from Tehran, he said the summit was an opportunity for Muslim countries to “bring our views closer together and this can have a huge effect on the regional diplomacy and interactions”.

Egypt and Iran have had tense relations for many years, but since Cairo stepped in as a mediator in the Gaza conflict, diplomatic ties have grown more intense.

While his Egyptian counterpart, Badr Abdelatty, traveled to Tehran in July to attend Pezeshkian’s inauguration, Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi traveled to Egypt in October.

The top Iranian diplomat expressed his hope that the summit would “send a strong message to the world that the Israeli aggressions and violations in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria” would halt “immediately” before it began.

According to the Turkish president, Erdogan, who visited Egypt earlier this year, will also be present.

Erdogan will hold discussions with the summit leaders on trade as well as Gaza and Lebanon, which saw a year-long war between Israel and Hezbollah that ended with a fragile ceasefire on November 27.

Erdogan visited Egypt in February, where he and President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi talked about regional issues and economic cooperation.

The D-8 was founded in 1997 with the goal of promoting collaboration amongst its member nations, which are spread across Southeast Asia and Africa.