DUBAI (Reuters) -Arab leaders discussed on Friday the joint efforts supporting “the Palestinian cause” and Gaza developments, during an informal meeting in Riyadh attended by Gulf states, Egypt and Jordan, the Saudi state news agency SPA said.
Arab countries are rushing to formulate an alternative to U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to redevelop war-torn Gaza into an international beach resort and his call on Egypt and Jordan to take in resettled Gaza Palestinians.
Both countries reject the proposal, citing national security concerns, but there are no signs Arab states are making serious progress on a counter-plan.
SPA did not mention that the leaders discussed Trump’s proposal.
The meeting, called by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was attended by Jordan’s King Abdullah and Crown Prince Hussein, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and his national security adviser, Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Sabah and Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, a photo published with the statement showed.
Sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters they tackled a mainly Egyptian proposal that could include up to $20 billion in funding over three years from wealthy Gulf and Arab states, but there was no official confirmation.
The leaders welcomed Egypt hosting an emergency meeting of the Arab League on March 4, SPA added.
Major U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which is one of few Arab states to have normalised ties with Israel, have ruled out any displacement of Gaza Palestinians and said peacemaking should envisage a Palestinian state co-existing with Israel.
Palestinians and others in the region are concerned Trump’s plan would destabilise the region, repeating the “Nakba”, or catastrophe in the 1948 war at the birth of the state of Israel.
In a defining moment of pain for the Palestinians, almost 800,000 of them fled or were forced away from their homes and villages. Many were driven into refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, and in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where many of their descendants languish more than 75 years later.
(Reporting by Nayera Abdallah, Enas Alashray and Hatem Maher; Editing by Alison Williams, Mark Heinrich and David Gregorio)
