From the Liveblog of
Monday, January 27, 2025
Responding to Trump, Egypt and Arab League reject forced displacement of Palestinians
Egypt rejects the idea of forced displacement of Palestinians, after US President Donald Trump suggested a plan to “clean out” the Gaza Strip and move its population to Egypt and Jordan.
Cairo’s foreign ministry in a statement expresses Egypt’s “continued support for the steadfastness of the Palestinian people on their land.”
It rejects “any infringement on those inalienable rights, whether by settlement or annexation of land, or by the depopulation of that land of its people through displacement, encouraged transfer or the uprooting of Palestinians from their land, whether temporarily or long-term.”
After 15 months of war, Trump has said Gaza has become a “demolition site” and he would “like Egypt to take people, and I’d like Jordan to take people.”
Moving Gaza’s inhabitants could be done “temporarily or could be long term,” he said.
The Arab League echoes Cairo’s statements, saying that “the forced displacement and eviction of people from their land can only be called ethnic cleansing.
“Attempts to uproot the Palestinian people from their land, whether by displacement, annexation or settlement expansion, have been proven to fail in the past,” the regional bloc says in a statement.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, with whom Trump said he would speak on Sunday, has repeatedly warned that said displacement would aim to “eradicate the cause for Palestinian statehood.”
Sissi has described the prospect as a “red line” that would threaten Egypt’s national security.
The Egyptian foreign ministry urges the implementation of the “two-state solution,” which Cairo has said would become impossible if Palestinians are removed from their territories.
