Both Clintons, pope, Prince Charles among dignitaries expected at Peres's funeral
By HERB KEINONUpdated: SEPTEMBER 28, 2016 09:48
A who's-who of world leaders, from US President Barack Obama to Pope Francis and Britain's Prince Charles, are scheduled to arrive for Friday's funeral of former president Shimon Peres.The Foreign Ministry held an emergency meeting in its situation room Wednesday morning to coordinate the logistics of the arrival of the most world leaders expected to visit the country at one time since Yitzhak Rabin's funeral 21 years ago.In addition to Obama, Pope Francis and Prince Charles, other leaders expected to arrive include German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, and Togo President Faure Gnassingbé.In addition, both US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and former president Bill Clinton are expected to arrive, as is US Secretary of State John Kerry and an as yet unnamed top senior British minister.As of yet, there has been no announcement of the participation of a leader of an Arab state.The arrival of the world leaders is taking part at a time of peak traffic at Ben-Gurion Airport, with hundreds of thousands of people both entering and leaving the country for Rosh Hashana.
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