Arab leaders met in Riyadh on Friday and prepared a plan for reconstruction after the Gaza war, to counter Donald Trump’s proposal that the US occupy Gaza without the Palestinians.
According to a report by the French news agency ‘AFP’ published in the Dawn newspaper, the United Arab Emirates is opposing Trump’s plan, but there are differences over who would govern Gaza and how its reconstruction could be financed.
A picture published on Saudi state television shows Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with the leaders of other Gulf Arab states, Egypt and Jordan.
Sources close to the Saudi government confirmed that the meeting had ended, but the host did not immediately issue a final statement.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s office said he had left the Saudi capital after meeting with the leaders of Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
A Saudi source earlier told AFP that the Palestinian Authority was also expected to attend the talks.
Trump had proposed that the United States take control of the Gaza Strip and relocate its more than two million residents to Egypt and Jordan.
Egypt’s plan
We are at a very important historical turning point in the Arab-Israeli or Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and it is possible that under Trump’s leadership the United States could create new realities on the ground that are irreparable.
Saudi sources told AFP that the meeting participants would discuss a reconstruction plan to counter Trump’s plan for Gaza.
The Gaza Strip has been in ruins since more than 15 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas, and the United Nations recently estimated that rebuilding it would cost more than $53 billion.
During a meeting with Trump in Washington on February 11, Jordanian King Abdullah II said Egypt would present a plan for moving forward.
Saudi sources said the delegates would discuss “a version of the Egyptian plan.”
The Saudi Press Agency said the decisions made at the “informal brotherhood meeting” would be included in the agenda of an emergency Arab League summit in Egypt on March 4.
Financing Gaza’s reconstruction
Arab leaders see an alternative plan for rebuilding Gaza as essential, as Trump cited the scale of the work as justification for relocating Palestinian residents.
Cairo has not yet released details of its proposal, but former Egyptian diplomat Mohamed Higazy has presented a “project outline in three technical phases” over a period of 3 to 5 years.
He said the first phase, lasting six months, would focus on early recovery and debris removal.
A second conference would be needed to draw up detailed plans for reconstruction and infrastructure restoration.
The final phase would see the establishment of a political track for the provision of housing and services and the implementation of a two-state solution, an independent Palestine alongside Israel.
An Arab diplomat familiar with Gulf affairs said the biggest challenge facing Egypt’s plan was how to finance it.
It would be unthinkable for Arab leaders to meet without reaching a shared vision, but the key is the content of that vision and its ability to be implemented.
Craig said it was a “unique opportunity” for Saudi Arabia to bring together all the other Gulf Cooperation Council countries, including Egypt and Jordan, on this issue, so that they could find a common position to respond to what kind of “coercive rhetoric” Trump was making.
