By Alexander Cornwell
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The United States has held talks with Gulf Arab states about the possibility that they could administer Gaza once the war is over, U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee told Reuters on Friday.
Huckabee said there had been conversations around an interim governing structure involving Gulf Arab states, potentially with the U.S. taking on a supervisory role, with a decision on a permanent arrangement to be made later.
“It’s a discussion. It’s not something that has been accepted by the administration, by Israel, by anyone. I’m not familiar with anything that is ready for signature,” he said.
After nearly two years of war, Israel has not clearly outlined how it wants Gaza to be governed, although there is broad international consensus that the militant group Hamas, heavily diminished by Israel’s siege, cannot remain in charge.
GAZA’S FUTURE GOVERNANCE UNCLEAR
Huckabee did not say when the talks took place or which Gulf states had been involved. The Gulf states did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside normal business hours.
Reuters reported in January that the UAE had discussed with the U.S. and Israel participating in an interim post-war Gaza administration that included the Palestinian Authority. In May, it reported the U.S. had separately discussed the possibility of itself leading a temporary post-war administration.
The PA, which exercises limited civic rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and was forced out of Gaza by Hamas in 2007, has said it is ready to govern Gaza with international support.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes PA involvement and has said there will never be a Palestinian state. The creation of such a state is one of the conditions the UAE has set for taking part in a post-war Gaza plan.
Netanyahu has also declared that Israel must retain overall security control alongside an Arab-led civilian administration. Others in his right-wing coalition, however, want to annex Gaza.
Huckabee said the U.S. would not join any plan with the PA if it continued to make payments to individuals and families involved in what the U.S. calls acts of terrorism.
“Why would we push something that violates our own law? We’re never going to do that,” he said in an interview.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who wants to annex Gaza, this week said that he was negotiating with the U.S. on how to divide Gaza once the war ends. Huckabee said he was not aware of such talks.
HAMAS REFUSES TO DISCUSS DISARMAMENT
Hamas has acknowledged it will no longer govern after the war but has refused to discuss disarmament.
“They have to give up. They can’t continue to think that they have a future,” Huckabee said at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.
Israel’s military this week launched a ground offensive on Gaza City, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering.
The military says thousands of militants are in the city and has ordered the population to leave, anticipating intense fighting.
Amid growing international outrage, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called the events “horrendous” and said the war was morally, politically and legally intolerable.
Huckabee also said former British prime minister Tony Blair was working on a plan for post-war Gaza, though he was not aware of the details. Blair met with President Donald Trump last month. The Tony Blair Institute declined to comment.
Asked what message Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered on the Gaza City operation during his visit to Israel this week, Huckabee said that the U.S. recognised that “Israel has to do what it has to do to get its hostages back and end the war”.
Israel says around 20 hostages are still alive in Gaza after being captured in the Hamas attack in October 2023 that triggered the war. Militants are also believed to be holding the bodies of 28 dead hostages.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled Gaza City since Netanyahu ordered the military on August 8 to take control there, but a greater number have stayed put, either in battered homes among the ruins or in makeshift tent camps.
(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell, additional reporting by William James in London, Maha El Dahan in Dubai; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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