Israeli, Palestinian presidents to address COP28 climate talks

DUBAI - Israeli President Isaac Herzog and his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas will both address

the COP28 United Nations climate talks in Dubai

this week, seven weeks into the Israel-Hamas war, officials said on Nov 28.

Mr Herzog and Mr Abbas are both scheduled to make speeches lasting three minutes maximum on Dec 1.

Mr Abbas is expected to be in the room when Mr Herzog is speaking, as he is scheduled to address the room only three speakers later.

Mr Abbas, head of the Fatah party that leads the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank, has only met Israeli officials on rare occasions.

A six-day pause has brought relief to the conflict in Gaza, sparked when

Palestinian Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages,

according to Israeli officials, in a major attack on Oct 7.

Israel, vowing to destroy Hamas, then launched a relentless bombing campaign and ground offensive in Hamas-ruled Gaza, which the Hamas government says have killed almost 15,000 people, most of them women and children.

More than 140 heads of state and government are due to address COP28 on Nov 30 and Dec 1, the start of nearly two weeks of talks to address the climate crisis, according to a UN list made available on Nov 28.

Other notable speakers in the first two days include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Jordan’s King Abdullah II, the emir of Qatar and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Britain’s King Charles III is expected to speak at the COP28 opening on Nov 30, and on Dec 2, Pope Francis will become the first pontiff to address an edition of the climate talks.

Another group of leaders will take part in a second batch of speeches on Dec 9 and 10 before COP28 is scheduled to wrap up on Dec 12. AFP