Three Qatari officials have been killed in a car crash in Egypt as the country prepared to host a Gaza peace summit led by US President Donald Trump and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt.
The men died in a “painful traffic accident” in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, Qatar’s embassy in Cairo said in a statement early Sunday morning, without specifying when the crash occurred.
The three were staff members in the Qatari royal court and died “while performing their work”, the embassy said. It named the men as Saud bin Thamer Al Thani, a member of Qatar’s royal family; Abdullah Ghanem al-Khiyarain; and Hassan Jaber al-Jaber. Two other men were injured, the embassy added.
Qatar has been a key mediator in efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the militant group in Gaza. Last week, negotiations in Sharm el-Sheikh led to a breakthrough, with the two sides agreeing to the first phase of Trump’s peace proposal to end the two-year-old war in Gaza.
On Monday, a summit in support of Trump’s peace proposal is to be held in Sharm el-Sheikh. Trump and el-Sisi will preside over the gathering, according to a statement from the Egyptian ministry of foreign affairs. Other world leaders also are expected to attend, including President Emmanuel Macron of France, Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
“Germany will be committed to implementing the peace plan, initially focusing on maintaining a stable ceasefire and providing humanitarian aid,” a spokesperson of the German government said in a statement on Sunday.
New York Times News Service