Arab nations reject Trump call to relocate Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan

Powerful Arab nations have rejected US President Donald Trump’s suggestion to relocate Palestinians from Gaza to neighbouring Egypt and Jordan.

Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League released a joint statement on Saturday following a meeting of foreign ministers.

They said they reject any plans to move Palestinians out of their territories in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

The statement warned that such plans “threaten the region’s stability, risk expanding the conflict, and undermine prospects for peace and coexistence among its peoples”.

The statement followed a meeting in Cairo of top diplomats from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, as well as Hussein al-Sheikh – a senior Palestinian official who serves as the main liaison with Israel – and Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul-Gheit.

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A Palestinian state

Last month, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi told a news conference that the transfer of Palestinians “can’t ever be tolerated or allowed”.

He added: “The solution to this issue is the two-state solution. It is the establishment of a Palestinian state.

“The solution is not to remove the Palestinian people from their place. No.”

Mr Trump floated the idea last month, saying he would urge the leaders of Jordan and Egypt to take in Gaza’s now largely homeless population, so that “we just clean out that whole thing”.

He added that resettling most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million could be temporary or long term. Some Israeli officials had raised the transfer idea early in the war.

“It’s literally a demolition site right now,” Mr Trump said, referring to the vast destruction caused by Israel’s 15-month war with Hamas, now paused by a fragile ceasefire.

'Firm'

Jordan’s foreign minister Ayman Safadi also said that his country’s opposition to Mr Trump’s idea was “firm and unwavering”.

Egypt and Jordan, along with the Palestinians, worry that Israel would never allow them to return to Gaza once they have left. Egypt and Jordan also fear the impact any such influx of refugees would have on their struggling economies as well as the stability of their governments.

Jordan already is home to more than two million Palestinians. Egypt has warned of security implications of transferring large numbers of Palestinians to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, bordering Gaza.

Both countries were the first to make peace with Israel but they support the creation of a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, territories that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War.