Visiting US, top Egyptian diplomat says Arab world rejects Trump plan for Gaza
Secretary of State Marco Rubio tells counterpart Badr Abdelatty that Hamas cannot ever govern Strip again as Trump warns aid could be cut if Cairo, Amman refuse to take in Palestinians
WASHINGTON — Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday that Arab states rejected US President Donald Trump’s widely condemned plan to displace Palestinians in Gaza and take control of the enclave.
Egypt’s foreign ministry said Abdelatty, in a meeting in Washington, stressed the importance of expediting Gaza’s reconstruction while Palestinians remained there.
A statement by the US State Department after the meeting did not explicitly mention Trump’s plan but added that Rubio “reiterated the importance of close cooperation to advance post-conflict planning for the governance and security of Gaza and stressed Hamas can never govern Gaza or threaten Israel again.”
Abdelatty said he was looking forward to working with the new US administration to achieve “comprehensive and just peace and stability” in the region, according to the Egyptian foreign ministry statement.
He also met with US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff in a separate meeting, where he echoed similar statements, the foreign ministry said.
Any suggestion that Palestinians leave Gaza, which they want as part of an independent state, has been anathema to the Palestinian leadership for generations and neighboring Arab states have rejected the idea of taking in displaced Palestinians since war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Trump first suggested on January 25 that Egypt and Jordan should take in Palestinians from Gaza. In the days that followed, he proposed a US takeover of Gaza and a potential permanent displacement of Palestinians from the enclave with no right of return.
The US president has continued to insist that Egypt and Jordan will come around, noting the billions they receive in US aid. On Monday, Trump said he could freeze assistance to Cairo and Amman to pressure them on the issue. On Monday, he said he had spoken to Arab leaders on the issue and believed they were “very positive about providing land.”
“What we need is land, and if we could build a nice place for people to live safely, everybody in Gaza would do it,” he said.
“It’s a hell hole right now,” he added later about Gaza. “You’re going to see that they’re all going to want to leave.”
Trump’s proposal has dredged up long-standing Palestinian fears of being permanently driven from their homes and have been labeled by rights advocates and the United Nations as a proposal for ethnic cleansing.
Abdelatty’s meetings took place as a fragile ceasefire in Gaza brokered by the US, Egypt and Qatar appeared to fray Monday with Hamas’s announcement that it would delay the release of hostages in response to unspecified Israeli violations of the deal.
