Arab diplomats say a Saudi summit of Arab leaders scheduled for a day in response to US President Donald Trump’s plan to take control of Gaza has been postponed by a day, with five more countries now participating, according to Saudi sources.
The mini-Arab summit in Riyadh has been postponed from Thursday to Friday, February 21, a Saudi diplomatic source later confirmed.
The meeting was expected to be attended by three Arab countries, but Saudi sources say the meeting will now include leaders from six Gulf Cooperation Council countries, along with Egypt and Jordan, to discuss alternatives to Trump’s plans in the Gaza Strip.
The Gulf Cooperation Council includes the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait.
Saudi sources, without naming any country, said that “an influential Gulf country expressed dissatisfaction at not being included in the Riyadh meeting, after which the organizers decided to include all Gulf countries.”
Trump had proposed occupying the Gaza Strip and relocating its more than two million residents to Jordan or Egypt, which experts say would violate international law.
Arab countries have unanimously rejected the idea of expelling the Palestinians from their land or any such possibility.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Washington was ready to listen to Arab proposals regarding the Palestinian territory, where a ceasefire was agreed on January 19 after more than 15 months of fighting.
Marco Rubio said he hoped to be able to discuss these ideas during his visit to Israel on Sunday, Saudi Arabia on Monday and then the United Arab Emirates.
According to a later statement, Jordan’s King Abdullah II met with Trump at the White House last week and reiterated Jordan’s consistent position against the expulsion of Palestinians.
Donald Trump reiterated his plan during the meeting.
