On Sunday, September 21, 2025, IPI held its twentieth annual Ministerial Working Dinner on the Middle East in its Trygve Lie Center for Peace, Security, and Development. The dinner drew the participation of foreign ministers and other high-level representatives.
The event was chaired by IPI President Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein and co-hosted by Qatar and the European Union, represented respectively by Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Qatar, and Kaja Kallas, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission.
Participants had a frank discussion, off the record, on regional issues held under the Chatham House Rule.
Attendees included Badr Ahmed Mohamed Abdelatty, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Arab Republic of Egypt; Jasem Mohamed AlBudaiwi, Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council; Sheikh Abdulaziz Al-Hinai, Ambassador-at-Large, Sultanate of Oman; Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi, Minister of State of the State of Qatar; Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; Abdullah Ali Al-Yahya, Foreign Minister of the State of Kuwait; Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Bahrain; Anita Anand, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Canada; Xavier Bettel, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Affairs of Luxembourg; Ignazio Cassis, Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of the Swiss Confederation; Espen Barth Eide, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway; Hakan Fidan, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Türkiye; Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary General of the League of Arab States; Simon Harris, T.D., Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade; and Minister for Defence of Ireland; Fuad Mohammad Hussein, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Iraq; Diego Martínez Belío, Deputy Foreign Minister and State Secretary for Foreign and Global Affairs, Spain; Beate Meinl-Reisinger, Federal Minister for European and International Affairs of the Republic of Austria; Sabine Monauni, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Environment, and Culture of the Principality of Liechtenstein; Youssef Raggi, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants of Lebanon; Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Denmark; Ayman Safadi, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan; Mr. Sugiono, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Indonesia; David van Weel, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Also present were Ivonne Baki, Member of the Board of Directors, IPI; Ian Bremmer, President of Eurasia Group; Helen Clark, President of Chatham House; Rosemary A. DiCarlo, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, UN DPPA; Comfort Ero, President & CEO of International Crisis Group; Jeffrey Feltman, John C. Whitehead Visiting Fellow in International Diplomacy in the Foreign Policy program, Brookings Institute; Mr. Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, UN OCHA; Anwar Gargash, Senior Diplomatic Advisor to the President of the United Arab Emirates; Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, UN RWA; Miguel Moratinos, High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations; Amr Moussa, Former Secretary General of the League of Arab States and member of IPI's International Advisory Council; Binaifer Nowrojee, President of the Open Society Foundations; Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Member of The Elders; Dahlia Scheindlin, Policy Fellow, Century International; Juan Manual Santos, Chair of The Elders, former President of Colombia, and Nobel Peace Laureate; Alex Soros, Chair of the Open Society Foundations; Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross.