Arab leaders meet in Riyadh to counter Trump's Gaza plan

RIYADH: Arab leaders will gather in Saudi Arabia on Friday to counter President Donald Trump’s plan for US control of Gaza and the expulsion of its inhabitants, diplomatic and government sources said.

The plan stirred rare unity among Arab states which roundly rejected the idea, but they could still disagree over who will govern the Palestinian territory and who will pay for reconstruction.

Umer Karim, an expert on Saudi foreign policy, told AFP the summit would be the “most consequential” in decades in relation to the wider Arab world and the Palestinian issue.

Trump provoked international outrage when he announced that the United States would “take over the Gaza Strip”, moving 2.4 million Gazans living there to neighbouring Egypt and Jordan.

A source close to the Saudi government told AFP Arab leaders would discuss “a reconstruction plan counter to Trump’s plan for Gaza”.

Meeting with Trump in Washington on February 11, Jordan’s King Abdullah II said Egypt would present a plan for a way forward.

The Saudi source said the talks would discuss “a version of the Egyptian plan” the king mentioned.

Friday’s summit was originally planned for Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan.

However, it has been expanded to include the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and the Palestinian Authority.

For Palestinians, any attempt to force them from Gaza would have echoes of what the Arab world calls the “Nakba” or catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians expelled during Israel’s creation in 1948.

Reconstruction

Reconstruction will be a critical issue at the summit after Trump highlighted this as the key reason for moving its inhabitants out while Gaza’s infrastructure is rebuilt.

Egypt has not yet announced its counter-initiative, but Egyptian former diplomat Mohamed Hegazy described a plan “in three technical phases over a period of three to five years”.

The first would be a six-month “early recovery phase”, said the member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, a think tank with strong ties to decision-making circles in Cairo.

“Heavy machinery will be brought in to remove debris, while designated safe zones will be identified within Gaza to temporarily relocate residents,” Hegazy said.

The second phase will require an international conference to provide details of reconstruction and would focus on rebuilding utility infrastructure, he said.

“The final phase will oversee the urban planning of Gaza, the construction of housing units, and the provision of educational and healthcare services.”

A UN estimate on Tuesday put the cost of rebuilding at more than $53 billion, including more than $20 billion over the first three years.

The last phase would include “launching a political track to implement the two-state solution and so that there is… an incentive for a sustainable truce”.

Umer Karim believes that adopting this plan would require “a degree of Arab unity not seen before in decades”.

Finance

One Arab diplomat familiar with the Gulf told AFP: “In the end, the biggest challenge facing the Egyptian plan is how to finance it.

“Some countries like Kuwait will inject funds, perhaps for humanitarian reasons, but other Gulf states will set specific conditions before any financial transfer.”

Karim said the “Saudis and Emiratis won’t spend any money if (the) Qataris and Egyptians don’t guarantee something on Hamas”.

Egypt’s plan seeks to address the complex issue of post-war oversight for Gaza, which Hamas has controlled since 2007, with “a Palestinian administration that is not aligned with any faction”.

It will comprise “experts” and will not be “factionally affiliated and is politically and legally subordinate to the Palestinian Authority”, Hegazy said.

The Cairo initiative also envisions a Palestinian Authority-affiliated police force supplemented with security forces from Egypt, Arab states and other countries.

Differences remain, however.

Hegazy said that Hamas “will retreat from the political scene in the coming period”, while the Saudi source said Riyadh envisions a Gaza Strip controlled by the Palestinian Authority.

Qatar, a key mediator in the war, believes the Palestinians themselves must decide Gaza’s future.

“I think all regional actors understand that any alternative plan they propose cannot include Hamas in any form as presence of Hamas will make it unpalatable for the US administration and Israel,” Karim said.

“So overall some things within the Strip have to fundamentally change in order for this plan to at least have a chance.”