In letter to US, five Arab nations reject transfer of Gazans, urge two-state solution
Foreign ministers of Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and UAE, plus Palestinian official, write US Secretary of State Marco Rubio after Trump suggests Gazans be resettled

Five Arab foreign ministers and a senior Palestinian official sent a joint letter to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday, urging the Trump administration to back a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and rejecting recent suggestions by US President Donald Trump that residents of the Gaza Strip be resettled, either temporarily or permanently, elsewhere in the Middle East.
“Palestinians do not want to leave their land. We support their position unequivocally,” wrote the foreign ministers of Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, as well as Palestinian Authority presidential adviser Hussein al-Sheikh.
The US president set off a firestorm of criticism in the last two weeks as he repeatedly floated the suggestion that countries such as Jordan and Egypt take in displaced Palestinians while the enclave is rebuilt after 15 months of war between Israel and the Hamas terror group. When asked if this was a temporary or long-term suggestion, Trump said: “Could be either.”
Both Egypt and Jordan have rejected the idea. Trump spoke with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi days after making the comments, but neither country’s read-out of the call mentioned the remarks. Trump has also invited Jordan’s King Abdullah II to the White House, amid the controversy.
The six Arab officials reportedly decided to send their letter, which was shared by Axios, during their meeting in Cairo on Saturday, and they referred to an “ongoing regional mobilization” to start the reconstruction of Gaza, to culminate in an international conference hosted by Egypt, in partnership with the UN.
The diplomats urged the US to oppose any “unilateral measures that undermine the viability of the two-state solution,” continuing, “it is imperative that Israel does not annex any Palestinian land.”
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On Monday, Trump made headlines again, when — asked about potential Israeli annexation of the West Bank — he responded, “I’m not going to talk about that,” and then noted repeatedly that Israel is “a pretty small piece of land,” comparing the size of Israel to the rest of the Middle East and telling reporters, “That’s not good, right?”
The Arab diplomats continued: “So will deportation of Palestinians from their land push the region towards more tension, conflict, and instability. Not only will such a move be a clear violation of international law. It will be a threat to regional stability and security.”
The ministers expressed their belief in the new US president’s “vision for peace,” saying, “We believe President Trump can deliver the peace that has eluded the region and the world for decades,” and promising he will have “committed partners” in all of their countries to do so.
They also made positive note of the recent developments in Syria, where the long-ruling Assad family was toppled in December following a lightning offensive by Islamist-led rebels, and in Lebanon, where an Israeli response to aggression by the Hezbollah terror group devastated the Iranian proxy, taking out almost all of its senior leadership and destroying much of its weapons store and infrastructure.

The Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, 2023, when some 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people as hostages, amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
After fifteen months of fighting, Israel and the terror group agreed last month to a hostage-ceasefire agreement, which sets out three stages, over the course of which Hamas is to release all of its hostages, while Israel releases thousands of Palestinian security prisoners, including hundreds serving life sentences for carrying out deadly terror attacks.
The first, 42-day phase of the deal has already begun, with Hamas releasing 18 hostages so far, and Israel releasing hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners, with fighting stopped in the Strip. The fate of the second and third stages of the deal, which are meant to secure a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a permanent ceasefire in the Strip, remain up in the air.
The letter comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet with Trump at the White House on Tuesday, having met with the president’s envoy Steve Witkoff on Monday, and to meet with several other US officials on his trip to Washington before returning to Israel Saturday night.