Muslim countries meet on Friday March 7 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to discuss the Arab plan for the reconstruction of Gaza, proposed by Egypt and adopted in response to the proposal of American President Donald Trump to take control of the Palestinian territory. The United States judged the day before that the Egyptian plan was a “first step” but that it did not meet “expectations” of President Donald Trump.
Info to remember
⇒ Meeting of Muslim countries in Saudi Arabia to talk about the Egyptian plan for Gaza
⇒ Washington judges that the plan of Egypt “does not meet expectations”
⇒ A Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo for negotiations on Saturday
Muslim countries gathered in Jeddah this Friday to talk about Gaza
Muslim countries meet on Friday, March 7 in Saudi Arabia to discuss the Arab plan for the reconstruction of Gaza, adopted in response to the proposal of the American president Donald Trump to take control of the Palestinian territory.
The foreign ministers of the 57 members of the Islamic Cooperation Organization (OCI) are expected at the organization’s headquarters in Jeddah, to support the plan approved by Arab leaders on Tuesday at a summit in Cairo. This plan, developed by Egypt, plans to rebuild the Gaza Strip, destroyed by 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas, without moving its 2.4 million inhabitants.
Mr. Trump had aroused international outcry by proposing to move the Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan, to make the territory the “Riviera du Middle East”.
The alternative plan adopted by the Arab leaders puts Hamas away and provides for a return from the Palestinian authority, chased from the territory in 2007 by the Islamist movement.
The Egyptian diplomacy chief Badr Abdelatty said Tuesday that his country was going to seek to have his plan adopted by the OIC, for “that he becomes both an Arab plan and an Islamic plan”. Arab countries have agreed to create a fund to finance the reconstruction of Gaza, and called for an international contribution to accelerate the process.
A Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo for negotiations on Saturday
A delegation from Hamas arrived in Cairo Friday for discussions on Saturday with Egyptian mediators on the pursuit of the fragile break in Gaza, two officials of the Palestinian Islamist movement announced to AFP.
The “high -level” delegation will “assess progress in the application of the truce agreement and have discussions concerning the second phase” of this agreement that came into force on January 19, said a manager.
This group, led by the head of the Hamas Choura Advisory Council, Mohammed Darwish, will notably ask that Israel “applies the agreement, begins the negotiations on the second phase and opens the crossing point to let in humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip,” he said.
A second official recalled that Hamas demanded within the framework of this second phase the total withdrawal of the Israeli army of Gaza, the end of the blockade of the territory and its reconstruction, as well as financial aid based the results of the recent Arab summit which took place in Cairo.
Hamas is ready to reach an exchange agreement including the release of all Israeli hostages, “including those holders of an American passport”, detained in Gaza and agree with Israel on the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released, he added. He stressed that the Islamist movement wanted “a global agreement which ensures a complete and permanent cease-fire”.
Washington judges that the Egyptian plan for Gaza “does not meet expectations”
The United States judged Thursday, March 6, that the Egyptian plan for the Gaza Strip supported by the Arab countries was a “first step” but that it did not meet “expectations” of President Donald Trump. The plan “does not meet the requirements, to the nature of what President Trump has asked,” the spokesperson for the State Department, Tammy Bruce told the press.
Previously, the American emissary for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, said that this plan supported by the Arab world was “a first step in good faith”. “He has many convincing characteristics. We must discuss more, but it is a first step in good faith on the part of the Egyptians,” Witkoff told journalists.
Gathered in Cairo on Tuesday, the Arab leaders adopted a plan for the reconstruction of Gaza which actually puts Hamas away and provides for a return of the Palestinian authority, driven from the territory in 2007 by the Islamist movement. But Israel, which also excludes any future role in Gaza for the Palestinian authority, based in occupied West Bank, rejected it.
In a verbal escalation, the American president launched a “last warning” in Hamas on Wednesday, nodding him to release the hostages, without which the “people of Gaza” risks “death”, the same day Washington confirmed to having had direct contact with the Palestinian Islamist movement. The American emissary suggested that this threat could result in a joint action against Hamas.