BERLIN, Germany: Britain, France, Germany and Italy on Saturday backed a proposal by Arab nations to rebuild Gaza as a “realistic path”.
The counter-proposal to US President Donald Trump’s plan to take over Gaza and displace its residents “promises — if implemented — swift and sustainable improvement of the catastrophic living conditions for the Palestinians living in Gaza,” the foreign ministers of the four countries said in a joint statement.
The 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at an emergency meeting in Saudi Arabia, on Saturday formally adopted a plan put forward by the Arab League.
The Egyptian-crafted plan, an alternative to Trump’s widely condemned takeover, proposes to rebuild the Gaza Strip under the future administration of the Palestinian Authority.
Unlike the Trump plan, it aims to do so without displacing the territory’s 2.4 million residents, who have suffered 17 months of war.
The OIC, which represents the Muslim world, in a statement urged “the international community and international and regional funding institutions to swiftly provide the necessary support for the plan”.
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The Egyptian proposal — which does not outline a role for Hamas, which controls Gaza — has already been rejected by both the US and Israel.
But the European foreign ministers said it “shows a realistic path to the reconstruction of Gaza”.
“We are clear that Hamas must neither govern Gaza nor be a threat to Israel any more,” they said in their statement.
“We commend the serious efforts of all involved stakeholders and appreciate the important signal the Arab states have sent by jointly developing this recovery and reconstruction plan,” the statement added.
“We are committed to working with the Arab initiative, the Palestinians and Israel to address those issues together.”
On Friday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said, “The emergency ministerial meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation adopted the Egyptian plan, which has now become an Arab-Islamic plan”.
“It is certainly a very positive thing,” Abdelatty said.
Cameroonian Foreign Minister Lejeune Mbella, chairman of the Council of Foreign Ministers, said the meeting was called in light of “new developments in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, including calls for the displacement of Palestinians.”
He urged the full implementation of the agreement with a view to reaching a final solution to the conflict via a “concerted and multilateral approach.”
Mbella stressed, however, that “this approach can only be applicable and relevant within the framework of the two-state solution, with Israel and Palestine living side by side within internationally recognized borders, thus ensuring comprehensive peace in the Middle East.”
