Arab foreign ministers have unanimously rejected US President Donald Trump’s plan to expel Palestinians from their land and settle in Egypt and Jordan.
In a joint statement after a meeting in Cairo, foreign ministers and officials from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League said such a move would threaten regional stability, spread conflict and undermine the prospects for peace.
The joint statement said that we reject any attempt to compromise the inalienable rights of the Palestinians, whether through settlements, or through evictions, or through land grabbing or eviction from their owners, in any form or under any circumstances or under any justification.
He added that he is looking forward to working with the Trump administration to achieve a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East based on a two-state solution.
The meeting comes after US President Trump said last week that Egypt and Jordan should provide shelter to Palestinians in Gaza, which he described as a “destroyed place” after 15 months of Israeli bombardment that has displaced most of its 2.3 million people, a proposal that critics have called tantamount to genocide.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Wednesday rejected the suggestion that Egypt would provide facilities for Gaza’s displaced, saying Egyptians would take to the streets to show their displeasure.
However, on Thursday, President Trump reiterated the proposal, explicitly referring to the extensive US military and civilian aid to Egypt and Jordan, saying “we do a lot for them and they are going to do that.”
Any proposal by the Palestinians to leave Gaza, which they want to make part of an independent state, has been unpopular with the Palestinian leadership for generations and has been repeatedly rejected by neighboring Arab states since the Gaza war began in October 2023.
Jordan already shelters several hundred thousand Palestinians, while Egypt also hosts tens of thousands of Palestinians. The Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministries have rejected Trump’s proposal in recent days.
The Arab ministers also welcomed Egypt’s plan to hold an international conference with the United Nations that would focus on rebuilding Gaza, a date for which has not yet been set.
