Saudi Arabia on Wednesday dismissed a proposal by President Trump for the U.S. to take control of Gaza and for Palestinians to permanently leave the strip, an idea likely to be also rejected by other Arab nations.
The kingdom said its commitment to a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank was “firm and unwavering,” and that Riyadh wouldn’t establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that goal. “Achieving lasting and just peace is impossible without the Palestinian people obtaining their legitimate rights,” Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry said.
Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s biggest economic power and the home of Islam’s most sacred sites, is considered the most influential Arab player in the future of the Palestinian cause. Moving forward with the Trump plan for the strip could undermine the president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s goal of a normalization agreement between Israel and the kingdom, which could pave the way for other Arab and Muslim states to follow.
Egypt, Jordan, the Arab Gulf states and Palestinian leaders in recent weeks have also rejected the idea of Palestinians relocating from the Gaza Strip.
Trump proposed a U.S. takeover of Gaza late Tuesday during a press conference alongside Netanyahu at the White House. Trump said the U.S. would “own” Gaza and “do a job with it,” leveling the bombed-out strip and developing the site to create jobs and economic growth.
The president’s proposal followed similar comments in recent weeks that he believed Palestinians should leave Gaza to allow the strip’s reconstruction following 15 months of war between Israel and militant group Hamas. The statement Tuesday laid out his most detailed vision yet for the plan, which, if implemented, would deeply involve the U.S. in a development project that administration officials said could take 10 to 15 years.
Left unaddressed was how the U.S. would persuade Palestinians to voluntarily surrender Gaza and whether Israel would eventually exercise sovereignty there—a goal pursued by some right-wing members of Netanyahu’s government.
The idea for a U.S. takeover of the strip comes at a highly sensitive moment. Israel and Hamas are in the middle of a six-week cease-fire, during which they have agreed to exchange 33 hostages in Gaza in return for the release of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.
Israel and Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, have said they would negotiate toward a permanent end to the fighting in parallel to the current truce, which began on Jan. 19.
Those further talks, which will be mediated by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar, have yet to start in earnest, in part because Netanyahu was traveling to the U.S. to meet with Trump. The families of those held hostage in Gaza have been lobbying both the Israeli government and new White House administration to see through the multiphase cease-fire and extend it beyond the initial six weeks to free all of the hostages.
Netanyahu has vowed to return to fighting in Gaza should Hamas refuse to disarm and give up control of the strip, but that outcome has been rejected by Hamas. Trump on Tuesday said he hoped that the cease-fire would be the basis for a larger, more enduring peace but wasn’t sure whether the truce would hold.
The talks toward a permanent end to fighting are intertwined with establishing a long-term plan for Gaza, and all sides had been waiting on U.S. officials to put forward ideas that might inform the negotiations.
While Hamas has been battered in the war, it remains a force in Gaza and is likely to fight to halt any forced removal of Palestinians.
Hamas said Trump’s statements reflected deep ignorance of the history of the region. “Gaza is not a common land for any party to decide to control,” the group said.
Trump has said that he would like both Egypt and Jordan, major recipients of U.S. military aid, to take in Palestinians. Egyptian officials in recent days have been on a diplomatic push to reaffirm Middle East support for the establishment of a Palestinian state that includes Gaza.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi held a phone call Tuesday with Jordan’s King Abdullah II to discuss the issue. Egypt’s foreign minister traveled to Turkey, where the two countries released a statement before Trump’s comments, rejecting the displacement of Palestinians.
A handful of Arab states have established diplomatic ties with Israel in recent years. But the U.S. and Israeli administrations have sought to deepen Israel’s position in the Middle East by establishing relations between it and Saudi Arabia.
Netanyahu said during the press conference that one of his key goals was to ensure Gaza wouldn’t host terrorists again. Trump, he continued, took that concept “to a much higher level.”
“It is something that could change history, and it is worthwhile really pursuing this avenue,” Netanyahu said.
