A key group of Arab nations stated that he “firmly” rejects any effort to reset or dump Palestinians from Gaza after US President Donald Trump expressed that he wanted to “clean” the territory and move the population to neighboring countries.
The Foreign Ministers of Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt issued a comprehensive statement on Saturday, stating that they hoped to work with Trump in a two -state solution in the Middle East.
But they rejected the Republican’s suggestion to relocate Gaza Palestinians.
Without making a specific reference to the president’s proposal, the authorities reiterated their commitment to rebuild the region, ensuring “the continuous presence of Palestinians in their homeland”.
The nations “firmly rejected any actions that threaten these rights, including expansion of settlements, forced dumping, housing demolitions, land attachment or Palestinian displacement through direct expulsion, or forced migration,” they wrote after a meeting of the Ministers of Relations Outdoors in Cairo.
In January, Trump reported that he had talked to the king of Jordan about the possibility of building housing elsewhere and moving more than one million Gaza Palestinians to neighboring countries.
“I told him that I would love you to take more, because I’m looking at the entire Gaza Strip now and it’s a mess, it’s a real mess,” he told reporters aboard Air Force UM.
He continued, “You’re talking about one and a half million people, and we just cleaned this whole thing.”
“I don’t know, something has to happen, but it’s literally a demolition place now,” said the US President.
“Almost everything was demolished, and people are dying there, so I prefer to get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different place where I think they could live in peace for a change.”
The declaration of the Arab Foreign Ministers addressed a series of topics related to Gaza’s reconstruction, as the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel allows the region to evaluate the impact of a brutal 15-month conflict.
The group greeted “the important role played by the United States in facilitating the deal”, for which both Trump and its predecessor Joe Biden sought credit.
They also “asked for full withdrawal from Gaza’s Israeli forces and rejected any attempts to divide the track,” and pointed to the “indispensable role” of the United Nations Palestine Refugee Assistance Agency (Unrwa), two, two days after the Israeli ban on the agency comes into force.
