When leaders of each Arab nation meet for an emergency summit in Cairo on Tuesday, they’ll face stress to provide you with one thing that has proved elusive for many years: a complete Arab imaginative and prescient for Gaza, simply because the Israel-Hamas cease-fire is teetering and Israel, buoyed by President Trump’s backing, holds the higher hand.
“Arab Summit: Rescue mission,” learn the stark headline on Saturday in Al-Ahram, Egypt’s state-owned flagship newspaper, over an article outlining the “uphill job” going through Arab leaders.
The summit was initially known as in response to Mr. Trump’s proposal final month to expel Palestinians from Gaza, ship them to Egypt and Jordan and switch the territory right into a tourism hub, an concept a lot of the world has rejected as ethnic cleaning.
Egypt, Jordan and Arab allies have pushed back on the plan, saying it could destroy any remaining hope of a Palestinian state, threaten their nationwide safety and destabilize your complete area.
Mr. Trump appeared to melt his place just lately, saying in an interview that he was “not forcing it.” However the Arab world stays deeply involved about Gaza, particularly now that the cease-fire that has paused the bloodshed there for six weeks and seen Israel and Hamas trade Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages is in doubt.
Within the newest disaster to shake the settlement, Israel started blocking all support and items from getting into Gaza on Sunday, making an attempt to strong-arm Hamas into delaying a everlasting finish to the conflict.
Israel additionally just lately drove tens of 1000’s of Palestinians from their properties within the West Financial institution and dominated out permitting them to return, intensifying Arab fears that an Israel emboldened by Mr. Trump’s assist will try and annex the West Financial institution.
The Israeli-Palestinian battle has haunted the Center East for many years. However latest occasions have introduced the query of how one can resolve it to a head, forcing Arab international locations to scramble over the previous few weeks to answer Israel’s actions and provide you with a counter proposal to Mr. Trump’s.
Past insisting on Palestinian statehood and rejecting forcible displacement, Arab international locations haven’t but agreed on another imaginative and prescient for Gaza — not to mention one which Palestinian political factions, Israel, the USA and different international locations would signal on to.
The leaders of Egypt, Jordan and Gulf Arab states met final month in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to strategize forward of Tuesday’s summit in Cairo, which can embrace all 22 members of the Arab League in addition to the United Nations secretary-general and the European Council’s president.
On the summit, the place representatives goal to hammer out a proper proposal, the discussions will seemingly heart on Egypt’s plan, which might contain rebuilding Gaza with out transferring Palestinians out of the strip and placing technocrats and group leaders unaffiliated with Hamas answerable for the territory after the preventing ends, in keeping with diplomats and officers briefed on the proposal. Below this framework, oil-rich Gulf states would seemingly pay for Gaza’s reconstruction, although Egyptian officers have additionally advised Europe might additionally contribute funds.
The Egyptian plan is “prepared” to be offered to different Arab international locations, Egypt’s overseas minister, Badr Abdelatty, mentioned throughout a information convention with a senior European Union official in Cairo on Sunday, in keeping with Al Qahera Information, a government-linked broadcaster.
He known as for the second section of the cease-fire settlement between Israel and Hamas — which is meant to result in a everlasting finish to the conflict — to begin instantly.
On Saturday, Mr. Abdelatty mentioned in a information convention with the Palestinian prime minister and overseas minister that Egypt had volunteered to coach Palestinian police forces to be deployed in Gaza whereas the territory is rebuilt.
However there stays little settlement over central questions, reminiscent of how one can govern Gaza, how one can handle its safety, how one can rebuild it and what function Hamas would play, if any.
And any plan must get round a extra elementary subject: Whereas Arab leaders will assist solely a framework that would come with at the very least a nominal path towards Palestinian statehood, Israeli leaders are towards paving the best way to Palestinian sovereignty.
Arab leaders additionally need the approval of the Palestinian Authority, the internationally acknowledged physique that runs the West Financial institution and likewise administered Gaza till Hamas seized management of the strip in 2007. The 2 territories must be united as one state, Arab officers argue, and should be linked in any conversations about Gaza.
However the authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, has appeared reluctant to offer his blessing to any governing association, together with the technocratic committee Egypt has proposed, that doesn’t put him totally answerable for Gaza.
Hamas officers have mentioned they might be keen handy over management of civil affairs to such a committee. However they refuse to demilitarize in Gaza, an important demand of each Israel and Mr. Trump, whose prime Center East envoy, Steve Witkoff, mentioned in an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation” final month that Hamas “has to go.”
Rania Khaled contributed reporting.
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