Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman welcomed a host of regional Arab leaders to Riyadh on Friday for what Saudi media described as an “informal brotherly gathering” to discuss “cooperation and coordination.”
Among those invited were Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Jordanian King Abdullah II, and representatives from a variety of Arab governments including Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, and Kuwait.
While official statements out of Riyadh only vaguely described the objective of the meeting as further cooperation and improving diplomatic ties among those present, multiple reports elsewhere citing anonymous sources in the know indicated that a primary topic of discussion was President Donald Trump’s plan for the United States to “take over” the Gaza Strip, evacuate its vulnerable civilians, and rebuild the area entirely. Trump suggested this month that Gaza has the potential to become the “Riviera of the Middle East” under American administration, outraging local Arab governments who oppose allowing Palestinian civilians to escape the horrors of war-torn Gaza.
Gaza has been governed by the jihadist terror organization Hamas for nearly two decades. It has been in a state of war since late 2023, when Hamas used its position there to invade Israel, massacre an estimated 1,200 people, and engage in a variety of crimes against humanity including gang rape and infanticide. Hamas has taken no responsibility for the gravity of its atrocities and routinely claims that the people it abducted and killed were victims of the Israeli government.
Shortly after Trump introduced his idea of the United States to capture Gaza, the Saudi government announced that it would prepare a meeting of Arab countries on February 20 intended to address the situation directly. That plan reportedly involved inviting the heads of the governments of Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, and the UAE for a discussion on the future of Gaza. The meeting on Friday appears to be the ultimate result of the plan for that meeting.
Saudi media repeatedly used the descriptors “brotherly” and “fraternal” to describe the meeting on Friday.
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the UAE, described the meeting as “part of efforts to further strengthen co-ordination and consultation between our countries” in a statement after the event, according to the Emirati newspaper The National.
“This meeting is part of the private friendly gatherings that have been regularly held for many years between the leaders of the GCC states, Jordan, and Egypt,” an unnamed source told the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), “reflecting the strong brotherly ties between the leaders, which enhances cooperation and coordination.”
The group did not publish a joint statement following the talks to offer specifics on the conversation. Multiple outlets including The National, Al Jazeera, the Agence France-Presse (AFP), and the Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram all indicated that unnamed sources could confirm that coming up with an alternative plan to rebuild Gaza to keep America out was high on the priority list, if not the entire reason for the meeting.
The AFP reported, citing a “source close to the Saudi government,” that the group was hoping to hash out “a reconstruction plan to counter Trump’s plan for Gaza.”
Trump told reporters in late January that Gaza in its current state was “literally a demolition site” that needed to be fully rehabilitated. He suggested that neighboring Arab countries, most likely Jordan and Egypt, could help “clean out that whole thing.”
A week later, he announced that, rather than Arab states taking over the project, the United States would seize the territory.
“The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too,” Trump said during a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the United States. “We’ll love it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous bombs and other weapons on the site … and get rid of the destroyed buildings [and] create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing.”
Trump repeated the promise during a visit by King Abdullah of Jordan to the White House.
“We’ll make it exciting,” he said. “I think it’s going to be something that’s going to be magnificent for the Palestinians.”
“I did very well with real estate. I can tell you about real estate. They’re going to be in love,” he promised.
The governments of Jordan and Egypt in particular have opposed granting asylum to destitute Palestinian refugees from Gaza, insisting instead that the world trap them in Gaza because of the alleged importance of staying on their land.
The Egyptian government announced an emergency Arab League meeting, initially scheduled for February 27 but moved to March 4, to organize an alternative to Trump’s plan that would not require neighboring states to give refuge to Palestinians. Al Ahram reported this week that the plan for that meeting continues to be “to formulate an Arab counter-reconstruction plan and a unified Arab stance against US-Israeli displacement of the native population proposals in Gaza.”
The Egyptian government claims that it already has an outline for a plan to ensure that Trump does not secure control of Gaza, featuring three phases and internal displacement of Palestinians but no need for countries like Egypt to take in refugees. The details of executing and financing that plan, however, remain unclear.