Egypt’s Foreign Minister, Badr Abdelatty, strongly rejected any plan to expel Palestinians from the Gaza Strip during a meeting at the US State Department on Monday with his US counterpart, Marco Rubio.
Noting that the US plan was also rejected by other Arab nations, the Egyptian Foreign Minister emphasised the urgent need for the reconstruction of the Palestinian coastal strip.
During discussions in Washington, Abdelatty stated that the clearing of debris in Gaza and the area’s reconstruction should be accelerated. This effort should be conducted in collaboration with the Palestinians, according to a statement from Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Egyptian Foreign Minister also called for the creation of a “political horizon” to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict based on a two-state solution.
He said Egypt looked forward to working with the US government to achieve the desired, just peace in the Middle East that meets the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, especially their right to establish an independent state on their entire national territory.
This meeting marked the first official encounter between Abdelatty and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Shortly before the meeting, US President Donald Trump reiterated his intention to take control of the Gaza Strip.
Trump aims to relocate the coastal strip’s inhabitants to other countries, primarily Egypt and Jordan, Israel’s neighbours.
Asked in an interview with Fox News that was set to go on air on Monday whether the Palestinians would have a right to go back to Gaza, Trump said “No, they wouldn’t.”
“We’ll build safe communities, a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is,” Trump said. “In the meantime, I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land. No big money spent.”
Izzat al-Rishq, a member of the Hamas political bureau is quoted by the Palestinian organisation as describing Trump’s remarks about US ownership of Gaza as “absurd.”
Al-Rishq, whose comments were released by Hamas on Monday, said Trump’s statements “reflect a deep ignorance of Palestine and the region,” and that the US president’s approach towards the Palestinian cause would fail.
“Dealing with the Palestinian cause with the mentality of a real estate dealer is a recipe for failure,” he said. “Our Palestinian people will thwart all transfer and deportation plans.”
