Cairo, Feb 2, (dpa/GNA) – Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo on Saturday, rejected a proposal from US President Donald Trump that Egypt and Jordan, should take in large numbers of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, while the region is reconstructed.
Resettlement would jeopardize regional stability and prolong the conflict, foreign ministers from Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates said. Representatives from the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League at the meeting expressed the same view.
The rights of Palestinians should not be violated “whether through settlement activity, deportation, destruction of housing or annexation,” the ministers said. The same applied to the “transfer or uprooting of Palestinians from their land in any way whatever or under whatever circumstances or justifications,” they said.
Speaking to journalists aboard Air Force One on January 25, Trump said the Gaza Strip was “literally a demolition site right now.
“Almost everything is demolished and people are dying there so I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change,” he said.
“You’re talking about a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing. You know over the centuries it’s had many, many conflicts. And I don’t know, something has to happen,” Trump said.
His remarks drew condemnation from Arab countries at the time.
On Friday, thousands of Egyptians gathered near the border with the Gaza Strip in a protest against Trump’s call to resettle Palestinian survivors in Gaza, Egyptian state media reported.
GNA