Five Arab foreign ministers reject forced displacement of Palestinians

CAIRO: Top diplomats from Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar rejected any forcible displacement of Palestinians during a meeting in Cairo on Saturday, according to a joint statement.

The meeting came after US President Donald Trump floated an idea to relocate Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Egypt and Jordan.

The foreign ministers rejected any “infringement of the inalienable rights” of Palestinians, whether by “settlement, expulsion, home demolitions, annexation, depopulation of the land of its people through displacement, encouraged transfer or the uprooting of Palestinians from their land”.

Both Egypt and Jordan – key US allies in the region – have repeatedly rejected Trump’s proposal to “clean out” the Gaza Strip.

Health ministry in Gaza says 50 patients left through Rafah crossing to Egypt

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Wednesday that the “displacement of the Palestinian people from their land is an injustice that we cannot take part in”.

The foreign ministers added Saturday that they “look forward to working with the administration of US President Donald Trump to achieve a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East, in accordance with the two-state solution”.

The meeting included Arab League secretary general Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

Two days after Israel severed all ties with the UN’s main aid agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, the ministers also affirmed the “pivotal, indispensable and irreplaceable role” of the agency, “categorically rejecting any attempts to bypass it or limit its role”.