Egypt has told the Trump administration and Israel that it will resist any attempt to displace Palestinians from Gaza into its territory and warned that the peace deal with Israel is at risk, according to The Associated Press.
One Egyptian official said the message has been delivered to the Pentagon, the State Department and members of the US Congress. A second official said it has also been conveyed to Israel and its Western European allies, including Britain, France and Germany.
Trump has several times publicly called on Egypt and Jordan to absorb the 2.2 million Palestinians living in Gaza, which under a plan announced on Tuesday would see the US occupy the territory and expel the population.
Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi publicly ruled out accepting people from Gaza last week, saying that displacing the Palestinians is “an injustice that we cannot participate in”.
A Western diplomat in Cairo, also speaking anonymously because the discussions have not been made public, confirmed receiving the message from Egypt through multiple channels. The diplomat said Egypt was very serious and viewed the plan as a threat to its national security.
The diplomat said Egypt rejected similar proposals from the Biden administration and European countries early in the war. The earlier proposals were broached privately, while Trump announced his plan at a White House press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Egypt’s president has publicly rejected Trump’s call for it to take in Gazans [Getty]
