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Saudi Arabia Spearheads Arab Scramble for Alternative to Trump’s Gaza Plan
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attends the 45th Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit in Kuwait city, Kuwait, Dec. 1, 2024. Photo: Bandar Algaloud/Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court/Handout via REUTERS
Saudi Arabia is spearheading urgent Arab efforts to develop a plan for Gaza’s future as a counter to US President Donald Trump’s ambition for a Middle East Riviera cleared of its Palestinian inhabitants, 10 sources said.
Draft ideas will be discussed at a meeting in Riyadh this month of countries including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates. Proposals may involve a Gulf-led reconstruction fund and a deal to sideline Hamas, five of the people said.
Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies were aghast at Trump’s plan to “clean out” Palestinians from Gaza and resettle most of them in Jordan and Egypt, an idea immediately rejected by Cairo and Amman and seen in most of the region as deeply destabilizing.
The dismay in Saudi Arabia was aggravated, sources said, because the plan would nix the kingdom’s demand for a clear path to Palestinian statehood as a condition to normalize ties with Israel — something that would also pave the way for an ambitious military pact between Riyadh and Washington, shoring up the kingdom’s defenses against Iran.
Reuters spoke to 15 sources in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and elsewhere to build a picture of the hurried efforts by Arab states to pull together existing proposals into a new plan they can sell to the US president— even potentially calling it a “Trump plan” to win his approval.
All the sources declined to be identified because the issue involves international or domestic sensitivities and they were not authorized to speak in public.
One Arab government source said at least four proposals had already been drafted for Gaza’s future, but an Egyptian proposal was now emerging as central to the Arab push for an alternative to Trump’s idea.
THE EGYPTIAN PROPOSAL
The latest Egyptian proposal involves forming a national Palestinian committee to govern Gaza without Hamas involvement, international participation in reconstruction without displacing Palestinians abroad, and movement towards a two-state solution, three Egyptian security sources said.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Palestinian representatives will review and discuss the plan in Riyadh before it is presented at a scheduled Arab summit on February 27, the Arab government source said.
The role of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, widely known as MbS, is shaping up to be key.
“We are telling the Americans we have a plan that works. Our meeting with MbS is going to be critical. He is taking the lead,” said a Jordanian official.
The crown prince had a warm relationship with the first Trump administration and is increasingly central to Arab ties with the United States during the new Trump era.
Long a major regional partner for the United States, the crown prince is expanding Saudi Arabia’s relationship through business and global power politics.
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is holding a conference in Miami this month that Reuters revealed Trump is expected to attend. Riyadh is also expected to host his coming talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to end the Ukraine war.
The White House did not respond to several requests for comment on this story.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking on Thursday, referred to the coming Arab meeting, saying: “Right now the only plan— they don’t like it— but the only plan is the Trump plan. So, if they’ve got a better plan, now’s the time to present it.”
Spokespeople for Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, and Israel did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
BUFFER ZONE
Clear plans for Gaza’s post-war future have already proven hard to develop as they require positions on contentious debates regarding the territory’s internal governance, security management, funding, and reconstruction.
Israel has already rejected any role for Hamas or the Palestinian Authority in governing Gaza, or ensuring security there. Arab countries and the United States have also said they do not want to put troops on the ground to do that.
Gulf states, which have historically paid for reconstruction in Gaza, have said they do not want to do so this time without guarantees that Israel will not again destroy what they build.
Jordan’s King Abdullah emphasized to Trump on Monday at their meeting in the White House that he was working with Saudi Arabia and Egypt on a Gaza plan that would work, a Jordanian official said.
Abdullah said in televised comments after the meeting that the countries would review an Egyptian plan and “we will be in Saudi Arabia to discuss how we can work with the president and the United States.”
Reuters could not immediately reach Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi for comment. After Abdullah’s meeting with Trump, Safadi said: “We are now working on crystallizing the Arab plan.”
Initial proposals shared by the three Egyptian security sources relating to reconstruction and financing appear advanced.
A buffer zone and physical barrier would be erected to stop tunnels being built across Gaza’s border with Egypt. As soon as rubble is removed, 20 areas would be established as temporary living zones. Around 50 Egyptian and other foreign companies would be brought in to carry out the work.
Financing would involve international and Gulf money, said a regional source with knowledge of the matter. A potential fund could be named the Trump Fund for Reconstruction, the Arab government official said.
However, the most difficult issues around Gaza’s governance and internal security remain to be decided, the official said.
Forcing Hamas out of any role in Gaza would be critical, said the Arab official and the three Egyptian sources.
Hamas has previously said it is willing to cede government in Gaza to a national committee, but it would want a role in choosing its members and would not accept the deployment of any ground forces without its consent.
The three Egyptian sources said that while nothing in the plan was very new, they believed it was good enough to change Trump’s mind and that it could be imposed on Hamas and the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas.
‘NOT PLEASED’
Saudi annoyance over Gaza had already been building before Trump’s announcement.
The kingdom had repeatedly said normalization with Israel was conditional on a path to creating a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.
That stance hardened as Saudi public anger grew at the destruction in Gaza. In November, the crown prince publicly accused Israel of genocide during an Islamic summit and doubled down on the need for a two-state solution.
Frustration was running high in the kingdom over the ongoing war, two regional intelligence sources said.
Washington appeared ready to push past Riyadh’s demand for two states. The day before his Gaza announcement, Trump was asked whether a normalization deal could go ahead without a two-state solution. He said: “Saudi Arabia is going to be very helpful.”
Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff had held meetings in Riyadh in late January. Two senior diplomats said Witkoff laid out a three-month timeline for the normalisation process.
But Saudi frustration quickly turned into surprise and then anger when Trump announced his Gaza idea. “He is not pleased,” a source close to the Saudi royal court said of Prince Mohammed’s reaction.
The level of anger was quickly evident in state media broadcasts — which analysts say are often a measure of official Saudi viewpoints— with television news reports personally excoriating Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“They are outraged,” said Aziz Alghashian, a Saudi analyst familiar with official thinking, describing the mood among senior Saudi officials. “This is outrageous. More than frustration, this is on another level.”
Many experts say Trump may be using an old bargaining ploy from his diplomatic playbook, setting out an extreme position as an opening gambit for negotiations. During his first term, he often issued what were widely seen as over-the-top foreign policy pronouncements, many of which never came to fruition.
Still, it has complicated the normalization talks.
Former Saudi intelligence head Prince Turki al-Faisal, who holds no current role in the government, said in a CNN interview last week that if Trump visited Riyadh, “I’m sure he will get an earful from the leadership here.”
Asked if he could see any prospect of normalization talks advancing with Israel, he said: “Not at all.”
The post Saudi Arabia Spearheads Arab Scramble for Alternative to Trump’s Gaza Plan first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Former Columbia University President Appointed as UK Economic Adviser
Columbia University administrators and faculty, led by President Minouche Shafik, testified before the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce on April 17, 2024. Photo: Jack Gruber/Reuters Connect
i24 News – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has named Minouche Shafik, former president of Columbia University, as his chief economic adviser at Downing Street, a move aimed at stabilizing the country’s fragile economy and averting a potential budget crisis.
Shafik, an economist of Egyptian origin with dual British and American nationality, has held senior roles at the Bank of England, the IMF, and the World Bank.
She later led the London School of Economics and was elevated to the House of Lords in 2020.
Her tenure in the United States was more turbulent. Shafik stepped down as president of Columbia University in 2024 after just a year in office, amid fierce criticism over her handling of pro-Palestinian protests following the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza.
US officials accused her of failing to confront antisemitism on campus, while students and faculty condemned her decision to call in police to dismantle protest encampments.
Since returning to Britain, Shafik has played an active role in policy and cultural institutions. She advised Foreign Secretary David Lammy on international aid reform, has chaired the Victoria & Albert Museum since January, and led the “Economy 2030” inquiry for the Resolution Foundation, where she argued for reforms to the UK’s system of wealth taxation.
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Israel Mulls West Bank Annexation in Response to Moves to Recognize Palestine
The Jordan Valley. Photo: Юкатан via Wikimedia Commons.
Israel is considering annexation in the West Bank as a possible response to France and other countries recognizing a Palestinian state, according to three Israeli officials and the idea will be discussed further on Sunday, another official said.
Extension of Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank – de facto annexation of land captured in the 1967 Middle East war – was on the agenda for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet meeting late on Sunday that is expected to focus on the Gaza war, a member of the small circle of ministers said.
It is unclear where precisely any such measure would be applied and when, whether only in Israeli settlements or some of them, or in specific areas of the West Bank like the Jordan Valley and whether any concrete steps, which would likely entail a lengthy legislative process, would follow discussions.
Any step toward annexation in the West Bank would likely draw widespread condemnation from the Palestinians, who seek the territory for a future state, as well as Arab and Western countries. It is unclear where US President Donald Trump stands on the matter. The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar did not respond to a request for comment on whether Saar had discussed the move with his US counterpart Marco Rubio during his visit to Washington last week.
Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the prime minister supports annexation and if so, where.
A past pledge by Netanyahu to annex Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley was scrapped in 2020 in favor of normalizing ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in the Abraham Accords brokered by Trump in his first term in office.
The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The United States said on Friday it would not allow Abbas to travel to New York for the United Nations gathering of world leaders, where several US allies are set to recognize Palestine as a state.
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Israel Pounds Gaza City Suburbs, Netanyahu to Convene Security Cabinet
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Israeli forces pounded the suburbs of Gaza City overnight from the air and ground, destroying homes and driving more families out of the area as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet was set on Sunday to discuss a plan to seize the city.
Residents of Sheikh Radwan, one of the largest neighborhoods of Gaza City, said the territory had been under Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes throughout Saturday and on Sunday, forcing families to seek shelter in the western parts of the city.
The Israeli military has gradually escalated its operations around Gaza City over the past three weeks, and on Friday it ended temporary pauses in the area that had allowed for aid deliveries, designating it a “dangerous combat zone.”
“They are crawling into the heart of the city where hundreds of thousands are sheltering, from the east, north, and south, while bombing those areas from the air and ground to scare people to leave,” said Rezik Salah, a father of two, from Sheikh Radwan.
An Israeli official said Netanyahu’s security cabinet will convene on Sunday evening to discuss the next stages of the planned offensive to seize Gaza City, which he has described as Hamas’ last bastion.
A full-scale offensive is not expected to start for weeks. Israel says it wants to evacuate the civilian population before moving more ground forces in.
HAMAS SPOKESPERSON TARGETED
Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday that Israeli forces had targeted Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson of Hamas’ armed wing. Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Abu Ubaida was killed. Two Hamas officials contacted by Reuters did not respond to requests for comment.
Gaza health authorities said 15 people, including five children, were killed in the attack on a residential building in the heart of Gaza City.
Abu Ubaida, also known as Hozayfa Al-Khalout, is a well-known figure to Palestinians and Israelis alike, close to Hamas’ top military leaders and in charge of delivering the group’s messages, often via video, for around two decades, delivering statements while wearing a red keffiyeh that concealed his face.
The US targeted him with sanctions in April 2024, accusing him of leading the “cyber influence department” of al-Qassam Brigades.
In his last statement on Friday, he warned that the planned Israeli offensive on Gaza City would endanger the hostages.
On Saturday, Red Cross head Mirjana Spoljaric said an evacuation from the city would provoke a massive population displacement that no other area in the enclave is equipped to absorb, with shortages of food, shelter and medical supplies.
“People who have relatives in the south left to stay with them. Others, including myself, didn’t find a space as Deir Al-Balah and Mawasi are overcrowded,” said Ghada, a mother of five from the city’s Sabra neighborhood.
Around half of the enclave’s more than 2 million people are presently in Gaza City. Several thousand were estimated to have left the city for central and southern areas of the enclave.
Israel’s military has warned its political leaders that the offensive is endangering hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza. Protests in Israel calling for an end to the war and the release of the hostages have intensified in the past few weeks.