Israel, US, UAE said to have held secret Abu Dhabi meeting on Gaza postwar plan
Axios reports proposal similar to that presented by Gallant in January, after senior UAE official signaled Abu Dhabi could contribute troops to a peacekeeping force
Officials from Israel, the United States and the United Arab Emirates reportedly held a secret meeting in Abu Dhabi last week to discuss plans for postwar Gaza, in an indication that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be budging from his refusal to seriously consider the issue until the offensive against Hamas ends.
Two Israeli officials told the Axios news site that the Thursday discussions were hosted by UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed and attended by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and US President Joe Biden’s Mideast envoy Brett McGurk.
According to the report, two senior Israeli officials who had been involved in the formulation of plans for the Strip after the war were also in attendance.
The postwar plan put forward by the UAE, the report said, is similar to a proposal put forward by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in January, which Netanyahu rejected at the time.
The war in Gaza erupted with Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
Vowing to destroy the terror group and free the hostages, Israel launched a wide-scale military operation in Gaza, initially making tactical advances against Hamas after powerful aerial strikes paved the way for ground troops.
But those early gains have given way to a grinding struggle against an adaptable insurgency — and a growing feeling among some Israelis that their military faces only bad options, drawing comparisons with US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The day before the American, Emirati and Israeli officials met, a senior UAE official signaled that Abu Dhabi was prepared to contribute troops to a postwar peacekeeping force in Gaza, making it the first Arab country to publicly buy into the effort being quietly advanced by the Biden administration.
Lana Nusseibeh, who serves as special envoy of bin Zayed, penned an op-ed in the Financial Times in which she called for the establishment of a “temporary international mission” in Gaza “that responds to the humanitarian crisis, establishes law and order, lays the groundwork for governance and paves the way to reuniting Gaza and the occupied West Bank under a single, legitimate Palestinian Authority.”
The UAE envoy specified in the article that the PA would have to conduct meaningful reforms, including appointing a new, independent prime minister, and then formally invite the international force to enter Gaza. Accordingly, Israel would need to allow the PA to govern in Gaza and take steps to move toward a two-state solution and the US would also have a leadership role in such an initiative, she added.
According to the Axios report, the Emiratis have told the Biden administration the PA’s newly appointed prime minister, Mohammed Mustafa, is too closely connected to PA President Mahmoud Abbas to be able to lead the necessary reforms. Former PA prime minister Salam Fayyad, a critic of Abbas, has reportedly been put forward as a potential replacement.
Washington has been looking to recruit countries for the effort, as it seeks to re-install the PA as the ruling authority in Gaza while recognizing that Ramallah needs time to reform and that a temporary security and governing force will be necessary to help fill the vacuum so that Hamas does not regain control.
But the Biden administration has had a hard time convincing Arab allies to come on board, as a key condition of theirs has been that the temporary peacekeeping force be part of a process leading to an eventual two-state solution — a framework Netanyahu has vowed to block.
Accordingly, Arab states have been reluctant to publicly express their willingness to take part in the initiative, not wanting to be seen as betraying the Palestinian people.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has held talks for months with a contact group of counterparts from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt and the PA. He has also looped in Morocco, Bahrain, Turkey, Indonesia and others in an effort to galvanize broad international support for the postwar stabilization of Gaza.
Jacob Magid and Agencies contributed to this report.
