Israel’s peace partner in the Abraham Accords, the United Arab Emirates, joined with the rest of the Arab nations in rejecting President Donald Trump’s plan to enable residents of war-torn Gaza to emigrate from the enclave and start new lives elsewhere.
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has said that rebuilding Gaza could take between 10 to 15 years, adding that at present the enclave is “uninhabitable.”
The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on the international community to “address the root causes of this prolonged conflict” in a statement released Wednesday.
The ministry “underscored the importance of finding a serious political horizon to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and establish an independent Palestinian state, reflecting the UAE’s belief that regional stability can only be attained through the two-state solution.”
Earlier in the week, the foreign ministers of the UAE, Jordan, Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia along with Palestinian Authority government adviser Hussein Al Sheikh sent a letter to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, opposing plans to allow Gazans to leave the war-torn enclave.
“Reconstruction in Gaza should be through direct engagement with and participation of the people of Gaza. Palestinians will live in their land and help rebuild it,” the letter said.
The five ministers added that Gazans “should not be stripped of their agency during reconstruction as they must take ownership of the process with the support of the international community.”
Saudi Arabia was among the first to reject the plan, reiterating Riyadh’s insistence on the establishment of a Palestinian State as a precondition for normalization of ties with Israel and a “lasting peace in Gaza based on the two-state solution.”
#Statement | The Foreign Ministry affirms that Saudi Arabia’s position on the establishment of a Palestinian state is firm and unwavering. HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister clearly and unequivocally reaffirmed this stance. pic.twitter.com/0uuoq8h12I
— Foreign Ministry ?? (@KSAmofaEN) February 5, 2025
“Saudi Arabia will continue its relentless efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that,” the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement on X.
The Saudi government reaffirmed its “unequivocal rejection of any infringement on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, whether through Israeli settlement policies, land annexation, or attempts to displace the Palestinian people from their land”.
