United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan told visiting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday that Abu Dhabi opposes the displacement of Palestinians, official media reported.
Sheikh Mohammed “affirmed the UAE’s firm position rejecting any attempts aimed at displacing the Palestinian people from their land,” the WAM news agency said.
Nahyan’s comments came after US President Donald Trump proposed a US takeover of Gaza and the resettling of its Palestinian inhabitants in Jordan and Egypt, prompting widespread opposition among Arab countries and Western allies.
Nahyan told Rubio during a meeting in Abu Dhabi that it was important to link the reconstruction of Gaza to a path leading to “a comprehensive and lasting peace based on the two-state solution” to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Rubio departed Abu Dhabi after a brief stop in the UAE, the final leg of his first Middle East tour in office, which included discussions on Trump’s proposal for Gaza.
The UAE’s stance on the conflict is important because it is one of four Arab countries that normalized ties with Israel during the first Trump administration and because it has played a role in financing reconstruction work after previous conflicts.
Arab diplomacy on Gaza is aimed at developing an alternative to Trump’s plan for the territory, most of which lies in ruins after 15 months between Israel and Hamas that began when the Palestinian terror group that rules the Strip led an invasion of southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people who were taken as hostages to Gaza.
A fragile, three-phase ceasefire was reached in January but the war has left nearly all the 2.3 million inhabitants of Gaza homeless.
The Trump administration, which rejects any future role for Hamas in the Palestinian territory, has called on the Arab countries, which are firmly opposed to any displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, to propose alternatives to the US president’s plan.
The leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE, and Qatar are expected to discuss an Egyptian proposal for Gaza in Riyadh this month before it can be presented to an Arab League summit in Cairo in March.
On Sunday, during his first stop in Jerusalem, the US secretary of state offered unwavering US support to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, giving Israel the green light to proceed however it chooses in Gaza, where the ceasefire took effect on January 19.
Rubio’s talks with Netanyahu included discussing Trump’s controversial vision for the future of Gaza. While Netanyahu was at the White House earlier this month, and on numerous occasions since, Trump has called for the permanent relocation of all Gazans, and for the US to rebuild the war-torn territory.
Some US officials have since sought to paint the plan as a temporary relocation, but Trump has not.
Netanyahu said he spoke with Rubio about Trump’s “bold vision for Gaza, for Gaza’s future, and how we can work together to ensure that future becomes a reality.”
Rubio also praised the plan as “something that is new, something that frankly took courage and vision in order to outline. It may have surprised and shocked many, but what cannot continue is the same cycle to repeat over and over again and wind up in the exact same place.”
In Saudi Arabia on Monday, Rubio met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, emphasizing “the importance of an arrangement for Gaza that contributes to regional security,” according to a statement.