Saudi to host Arab summit on Trump’s Gaza plan

AFP :

Saudi Arabia will host the leaders of four Arab countries at a summit on February 20 to discuss President Donald Trump’s proposal for a US takeover of Gaza, a source with knowledge of the preparations said on Friday.
The leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will attend the summit, to take place ahead of an Arab League meeting in Cairo one week later on the same issue, the source said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, another source said Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas would also attend.
Trump sparked a global outcry with his proposal for the United States to “take over” the Gaza Strip and to move more than two million Palestinians out of the war-devastated territory, citing Egypt or Jordan as possible destinations.
Trump made the proposal during a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington.
Arab countries have come together in a rare united front, outraged by the idea of displacing the Palestinians.
For Palestinians, any forced displacement evokes memories of the “Nakba,” or catastrophe — the mass displacement of their ancestors during Israel’s creation in 1948.
But Trump has floated the possibility of cutting off aid to longstanding allies Jordan and Egypt should they refuse his plan.
Jordan is already home to more than two million Palestinian refugees. More than half of the country’s population of 11 million is of Palestinian origin.
Egypt put forward its own proposal for the reconstruction of Gaza under a framework that would allow for the Palestinians to remain in the territory.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday the United States was eager to hear new proposals on Gaza from Arab governments but that, “right now the only plan — they don’t like it — but the only plan is the Trump plan.”
In January, Rubio’s predecessor Antony Blinken outlined a roadmap for post-war Gaza and warned it required Israel’s acceptance of a path to a Palestinian state — something the Israeli government strongly opposes.
Regional states including Saudi Arabia have repeatedly called for a Palestinian state, existing alongside Israel.
He was set to join Vice President JD Vance in a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, after Trump spoke by phone with his counterpart Vladimir Putin and said he would pursue talks to end the war in Ukraine, which Russia invaded in 2022.
Afterwards Rubio is set to fly on to Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to discuss the fragile Gaza ceasefire in effect since January 19.
Following his surprise call with Putin, Trump said the two leaders were “going to meet probably in Saudi Arabia the first time.”
Riyadh, which has been increasingly prominent on the international diplomatic stage, on Friday expressed “its welcome to hosting the summit in Saudi Arabia,” without confirming whether or when the meeting would go ahead.
Mutlaq al-Mutairi, of King Saud University, said Saudi Arabia is seeking to emphasise the importance of its role in any solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It wants “to emphasise that it stands behind Egypt and Jordan, the Arab countries threatened with displacement,” he said, adding that would include economic backing should the United States withdraw support.
Saudi analyst Suleiman Aloqeliy said the meeting will seek to “lay out the rules of engagement and the foundations of an Arab alternative solution to the issue of displacement.”
Two of the governments invited, Qatar and Egypt, are mediators in the Gaza war.
They and the other participants “are now the core countries with regards to Palestine,” said Umar Karim, a specialist on Saudi politics at the University of Birmingham.
“So the purpose is to develop a unified stance and then rally all other Arab countries around it,” Karim said.