DUBAI (Reuters) – The United Arab Emirates leader told the United States’ secretary of state on Wednesday that his country rejects a proposal to displace Palestinians from their land, the Emirati state news agency WAM reported.
President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s comments came after U.S. President Donald Trump proposed a U.S. takeover of Gaza and resettling its Palestinian inhabitants in Jordan and Egypt, prompting widespread opposition among Arab countries and Western allies.
Nahyan told U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a meeting in Abu Dhabi that it was important to link the reconstruction of Gaza to a path leading to “a comprehensive and lasting peace based on the two-state solution” to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
The UAE’s stance on the conflict is important because it is one of four Arab countries that normalised ties with Israel during the first Trump administration and because it has played a role financing reconstruction work after previous conflicts.
Arab diplomacy on Gaza is aimed at developing an alternative to Trump’s plan for the territory, most of which lies in ruins after Israel’s 15-month military campaign against Hamas, with nearly all the 2.3 million inhabitants now homeless.
The leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE and Qatar are expected to discuss the plan in Riyadh this month before it can be presented to an Arab League summit in Cairo in March.
(Reporting by Jana Choukeir; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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