Key points
- Trump sparked global outcry with Gaza proposal
- Arab countries vehemently rejected Trump’s plan
- Mahmud Abbas to attend Riyadh summit
ISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia is contemplating options to develop an alternative plan for Gaza’s future as a counter to United States (US) President Donald Trump’s ambition for a Middle East Riviera cleared of its Palestinian inhabitants.
According to Jerusalem Post, 10 sources told the Israeli media outlet that draft ideas will be discussed at a meeting in Riyadh this month of countries including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
Proposals may involve a Gulf-led reconstruction fund and a deal to sideline Hamas.
Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies were aghast at Trump’s plan to “clean out” Palestinians from Gaza and resettle most of them in Jordan and Egypt, an idea immediately rejected by Cairo and Amman and seen in most of the region as deeply destabilising.
Riyadh summit
According to AFP, Saudi Arabia will host the leaders of four Arab countries at a summit on February 20.
The leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will attend the summit, to take place ahead of an Arab League meeting in Cairo one week later on the same issue, the source said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, another source told AFP that Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas would also attend.
Trump sparked a global outcry with his proposal for the United States to “take over” the Gaza Strip and to move more than two million Palestinians out of the war-devastated territory, citing Egypt or Jordan as possible destinations.
Trump made the proposal during a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington.
Arab front
Arab countries have come together in a rare united front, outraged by the idea of displacing the Palestinians en masse.
For Palestinians, any forced displacement evokes memories of the “Nakba”, or catastrophe — the mass displacement of their ancestors during Israel’s creation in 1948.
But Trump has floated the possibility of cutting off aid to longstanding allies Jordan and Egypt should they refuse his plan.
Jordan is already home to more than two million Palestinian refugees. More than half of the country’s population of 11 million is of Palestinian origin.
Egypt put forward its own proposal for the reconstruction of Gaza under a framework that would allow for the Palestinians to remain in the territory.
