Egypt’s President is delaying his visit to meet Trump over the proposal to displace Palestinians from Gaza [Getty]
Egypt is planning on putting forward a detailed plan for Gaza’s reconstruction that would guarantee Palestinians remain on their land, the country’s foreign ministry announced in a statement on Tuesday.
“The Arab Republic of Egypt expresses its aspiration to cooperate with the US administration led by President Donald Trump to achieve a comprehensive and just peace in the region, by reaching a just settlement of the Palestinian issue that takes into account the rights of the people of the region,” the statement read.
The foreign ministry also emphasised that the proposal would uphold Palestinians’ rights, further noting it would consider any actions that may hinder peace in the region.
The plan will also involve “implementing a two-state solution” which it said was the “only way to achieve stability and coexistence among people in the region”.
Earlier on Tuesday, the foreign ministry announced in a separate statement that Foreign Minister Badr Abdel Atty spoke to several officials and ministers from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran and Jordan to discuss the issue.
This comes following statements from US President Donald Trump where he said he had plans for the US to “own” Gaza and would like to turn Gaza into a “riviera of the Middle East” by forcibly displacing the Palestinian population.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has echoed and praised the comments, even going as far as suggesting Saudi Arabia should absorb the expelled Palestinian population.
Egypt’s foreign ministry further said this week that the OIC will be holding an emergency meeting following the Arab Summit scheduled to take place in Cairo on 27 February, The New Arab’s Arabic language sister publication, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported.
In a meeting with Trump on Tuesday, Jordans King Abdullah said: “We have to wait and see what the plan is from Egypt,” in response to Trump’s pressing that Palestinians should be displaced from the besieged Gaza Strip.
King Abdullah also reiterated that he would do what is in the “best interest” of his country, later rejecting any expulsion of Palestinians and adding that he remains steadfast in his position against the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
The latest developments come as Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is holding off his visit to the White House for talks if the agenda includes Trump’s plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza, two Egyptian security sources said, according to Reuters.
Trump invited Sisi over to the White House on 1 February according to the Egyptian presidency, however, a US official clarified that no date had been set for the visit.
Both the Egyptian presidency and foreign ministry are yet to further comment on the visit, however, reports say the visit was scheduled for 18 February but is now indefinitely delayed due to Cairo’s opposition to Trump’s plan.
Senior Egyptian officials have recently described relations with Washington as at their most strained in three decades, following what they said were strongly negative responses from the Trump administration to Egypt’s concerns over the proposal.
Reports further state one factor behind the delayed visit is Trump’s repeated reference to Sisi as “the general”, a term used again during a recent White House press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Egyptian officials viewed this as dismissive, sources said.
