This handout image exhibits (from L) Bahrain’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Jordan’s Crown Prince Hussein and UAE’s Nationwide Safety Advisor Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed al-Nahyan pose for an image in Riyadh on February 21, 2025.
Saudi Royal Palace/AFP by way of Getty
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Saudi Royal Palace/AFP by way of Getty
DUBAI — There was no ultimate communique, press convention or particulars of when the assembly began or ended, in distinction to straightforward protocol when Arab leaders meet. As an alternative, a single photo was launched on Friday, displaying Arab leaders standing shoulder-to-shoulder in Saudi Arabia for what the dominion known as an “casual brotherly gathering”, although with lofty dialogue on Gaza’s future.
This uncommon stage of secrecy across the high-level assembly signifies how delicate these talks are for Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, leaders from different Gulf states, Egypt’s president and Jordan’s king, who all attended.
Whereas their solely picture from the gathering exhibits them standing collectively, what’s at stake is whether or not they can attain a consensus and unite round an Egyptian plan for Gaza that is starkly completely different to the one laid out by President Donald Trump in latest weeks.
Arab states are scrambling to handle Trump’s imaginative and prescient for Gaza, wherein he says the U.S. ought to take possession of the territory, displace all its 2 million Palestinians completely to international locations like Egypt and Jordan, and switch this sliver of beachfront territory into an actual property venture.
The plan has strained the essential outlines of an already shaky ceasefire in Gaza following greater than 15 months of warfare and Israeli airstrikes which have decimated the territory and killed at the very least 48,000 folks, most of them girls and youngsters, in keeping with the Palestinian well being ministry. The warfare erupted when Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing round 1,200 folks there and taking hostages in October 2023.
Arab international locations, eager to keep up heat ties with Trump as president, have rejected the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza whereas circuitously condemning Trump’s concept. Egypt and Jordan view the plan as destabilizing to their safety and the area. The UAE., which has shut ties with Israel and opposes Hamas in Gaza, has emphasized that reconstruction of Gaza should be linked to the institution of a Palestinian state.
Hamas and plenty of Palestinians have known as Trump’s plan “ethnic cleaning,” however Israel’s prime minister has embraced it as a outstanding concept that encourages what he says is voluntary migration. Israel’s army has been instructed to organize to facilitate the plan.
It isn’t solely Israeli backing that is wanted, although. Any post-war reconstruction of Gaza will even require Arab assist to assist shoulder the price of rebuilding and the attainable deployment of troops for safety.
Arab leaders evaluation Egypt’s plan
Whereas Egypt’s plan has not been made public, the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper in Cairo reported it consists of carving out “secure areas” for Palestinians in Gaza to reside in as Egyptian and worldwide corporations take away rubble and rebuild infrastructure.
The Related Press reviews the multiphase plan consists of Hamas giving up governance of Gaza, because the group told NPR they’re prepared to do, although Hamas insist on the precise to keep up arms towards Israel. The AP reviews the Egyptian plan additionally requires restructuring Gaza’s police force.
It is unclear, nevertheless, if the plan goes far sufficient in addressing concerns of Gulf Arab states, that are unlikely to speculate billions into rebuilding Gaza as long as the specter of violence looms indefinitely and Israeli airstrikes stay a risk.
In the meantime, the Palestinian Authority within the occupied-West Financial institution says it has its own vision for Gaza that will likely be offered in early March at a wider Arab League summit in Cairo.
Gaza’s unsure future
There’s a bit of over every week left within the present ceasefire settlement between Israel and Hamas. Negotiations haven’t but begun for the extra complicated second section of the deal that features full Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza, the discharge of all remaining Israeli hostages and a everlasting finish to the warfare. Far-right ministers in Israel’s authorities desire a return to warfare, saying Hamas has not been eradicated.
An evaluation this week by the U.N., World Bank and European Union says Gaza and the occupied-West Financial institution want at the very least $53 billion for reconstruction and restoration over the following decade. The U.N. says 95% of Gaza’s schools have been broken or destroyed, as have greater than 90% of homes and most hospitals, roads, water methods and agricultural land. One other U.N. estimate says extra particularly that nearly 300,000 houses have been utterly destroyed in Israeli airstrikes.
White Home Mideast Envoy Steve Witkoff has a lead function in ceasefire efforts to launch hostages and just lately stepped foot in Gaza with Israeli troopers. In remarks to Trump’s son-in-law and former advisor, Jared Kushner, at a summit in Miami on Thursday hosted by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, Witkoff stated situations in Gaza are horrendous.
“I sat in Gaza with a bulletproof vest on wanting on the surroundings there, Jared, and I do not know why anybody would need to dwell there in the present day. It is illogical to me,” he stated, including it would take “a number of cleanup and creativeness and a terrific grasp plan” just like the one offered by Trump to vary the long run.
