Donald Trump’s plans for the US to assume control of Gaza have been met with anger across the Arab world, and raised fears of reigniting conflict in the region.
Saudi Arabia, considered Trump’s closest ally in the oil-rich Gulf region, was quick to denounce the US president’s remarks on Tuesday evening that Washington should “take over” the devastated Gaza Strip and that its 2.2mn-strong Palestinian population should be resettled.
Other US allies in the Middle East and Europe also rejected the plan for Gaza, swaths of which are in ruins after more than a year of war between Israel and Hamas, while Palestinian leaders said they would defy any attempts to remove them from their land.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that the country would “not establish diplomatic relations with Israel” without an independent Palestinian state, adding that its position was “non-negotiable and not subject to compromises”.
After brokering normalisation deals between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain during his first term, Trump was widely expected to pursue an agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
But Israel’s war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack, hardened Riyadh’s attitude towards Israel, and the kingdom has renewed its commitment to an independent Palestinian state. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has previously labelled Israel’s assault, which killed about 47,000 people in Gaza, a “genocide”.
Both Jordan and Egypt also rejected the US president’s Gaza plans on Wednesday, having earlier rebuffed Trump’s suggestion that they should accept displaced Palestinian refugees.
King Abdullah of Jordan emphasised “the need to put a stop to settlement expansion, expressing rejection of any attempts to annex land and displace the Palestinians”, the country’s royal court posted on X.
Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty said it was important to speed up the delivery of aid to Gaza “without Palestinians leaving the Gaza Strip, especially with their attachment to their land and their refusal to leave it”.
He called on the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the occupied West Bank, to assume responsibility for Gaza.
Badr Albusaidi, Oman’s foreign minister, added that “any attempt at forced resettlement would be a very serious crime” that would “condemn the region to a state of perpetual instability”.
Arab states have long rejected any further expulsion of Palestinians. The exodus of Palestinians during the creation of Israel in 1948, known to Palestinians as the Nakba or catastrophe, created waves of displacement into neighbouring countries and triggered years of instability in the region.
The US president’s refusal this week to rule out using American soldiers to secure Gaza will also rekindle memories of the disastrous 2003 US invasion and occupation of Iraq, which further destabilised the region and sullied America’s reputation in the Middle East.
Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan described Trump’s remarks on Gaza as “unacceptable”.
In comments to state agency Anadolu, he added: “Neither we nor the region would accept a deportation from Gaza. Why put forth proposals that do not stop the conflict but will bring more conflict?”
Hamas, the militant group that has controlled Gaza since 2007, said Trump’s “irresponsible” statements were “aggressive to our people and cause, will not serve stability in the region and will only pour fuel on the fire”.
It called on the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and the UN “to convene urgently . . . and to take a firm and historic position that preserves the Palestinian people’s national rights”.
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, denounced what he called “a serious violation of international law”, arguing that only a two-state solution would bring peace and stability to the region.
He added: “We will not allow the rights of our people, for which we have struggled for decades and made great sacrifices to achieve, to be infringed upon.”
European allies of the US and Israel also appeared to reject Trump’s proposal. France rejected any “third party” control of Gaza, a reference to Trump’s plan for the strip.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said Palestinians in Gaza “must be allowed home, they must be allowed to rebuild, and we should be with them in that rebuild — on the way to a two-state solution”.
Speaking to MPs on Wednesday, Starmer avoided direct criticism of Trump, but evoked “the image of thousands of Palestinians walking, literally walking through the rubble, to try to find their homes and their communities in Gaza” and called for a “sustained” ceasefire in the enclave.
Additional reporting by Lucy Fisher in London