BAGHDAD: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Saturday called for increased pressure “to halt the massacre in Gaza”, speaking at an Arab League summit hours after Israel announced an intensified operation in the besieged Palestinian territory.UN chief Antonio Guterres told the Baghdad meeting that “we need a permanent ceasefire, now”, while Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi urged his US counterpart Donald Trump to “apply all necessary efforts… for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip”.The summit comes straight after a Gulf tour by Trump, who sparked uproar earlier this year by declaring that the United States could take over Gaza and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.The scheme that included the proposed displacement of Palestinians prompted Arab leaders to come up with an alternative plan to rebuild the territory at a March summit in Cairo.Guterres said that “we reject the repeated displacement of the Gaza population, along with any question of forced displacement outside of Gaza.”The UN secretary-general also said he was “alarmed by reported plans by Israel to expand ground operations and more”.The Israeli military said it had launched “extensive strikes” on Saturday as part of the “initial stages” of a fresh offensive, more than 19 months into the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.Sanchez, who has sharply criticised the Israeli offensive, said world leaders should “intensify our pressure on Israel to halt the massacre in Gaza, particularly through the channels afforded to us by international law”.He said his government planned a UN resolution demanding an International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s war methods.The “unacceptable number” of war victims in Gaza violates the “principle of humanity”, he said.Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani told the summit that his country backs the creation of an “Arab fund to support reconstruction efforts” after crises in the region.He pledged $20 million to the reconstruction of Gaza and a similar amount for Lebanon.Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said the Baghdad meeting would endorse previous Arab League decisions on Gaza’s reconstruction countering Trump’s widely condemned proposal.During his visit to the region this week, Trump reiterated that he wanted the United States to “take” Gaza and turn it into a “freedom zone”.Syria, Iran Iraq has only recently regained a semblance of normality after decades of devastating conflict and turmoil, and its leaders view the summit as an opportunity to project an image of stability.Baghdad last hosted an Arab League summit in 2012, during the early stages of the civil war in neighbouring Syria, which in December entered a new chapter with the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.In Riyadh, Trump met Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a onetime jihadist whose Islamist group spearheaded the offensive that toppled Assad.Sharaa, who was imprisoned in Iraq for years after the US-led invasion of 2003 on charges of belonging to Al-Qaeda, missed the Baghdad summit after several powerful Iraqi politicians voiced opposition to his visit.Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani represented Damascus instead.The summit also comes amid Iran’s ongoing nuclear talks with the United States.Trump has pursued diplomacy with Iran as he seeks to avert threatened military action by Israel — a desire shared by many of the region’s leaders.On Thursday, Trump said a deal was “getting close”, but by Friday, he warned that “something bad is going to happen” if the Iranians do not move fast.
