Saudi Arabia Warns Israel Over US Controlling Gaza
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
RIYADH/GAZA/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Saudi Arabia warned Wednesday it would not establish ties with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state after U.S. President Donald J. Trump suggested again that the United States should take over Gaza.
Riyadh also denied Trump’s claim that Saudi Arabia was “not demanding” a Palestinian homeland. “Saudi Arabia rejects any attempts to displace the Palestinians from their land,” Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry stressed in a statement Wednesday, adding that its stance towards the Palestinians “is not negotiable.”
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman affirmed the kingdom’s position in “a clear and explicit manner” that does not allow for any interpretation under any circumstances, the ministry said
Saudi Arabia, one of the most influential Middle Eastern nations, was among several countries condemning Trump’s move.
Hamas, which sparked the war by attacking Israel on October 7, 2023, and killing about 1,200 people, including babies and pregnant women, while abducting hundreds, condemned Trump’s calls for Palestinians in Gaza to leave.
The group designated as a terror organization by Israel, the U.S., and others called Trump’s proposal an “expulsion from their land.”
One Hamas figure described the remarks as “absurd” and “ridiculous.” At the same time, the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations said that world leaders and people should respect Palestinians’ desire to remain in Gaza.
TOP DIPLOMATS
Earlier at a meeting in Cairo on Saturday, top diplomats from Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar also rejected any forcible displacement of Palestinians.
On Friday, state-linked media in Egypt broadcast footage of people protesting near Egypt’s border with Gaza against Palestinian displacement.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told his U.S. counterpart Trump on Saturday that the world was relying on him “to reach a permanent and historic peace agreement” to end the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
Sisi called Trump’s proposal to take over Gaza and divide its roughly 2 million people among friendly neighbors “an injustice that we cannot take part in.”
However, he also said he was “determined to work with President Trump, who seeks to achieve the desired peace based on the two-state solution.”
There have also been reactions from Western allies, with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reiterating that his government continues to support a two-state solution in the Middle East, “where both Israelis and Palestinians could live in peace and security.”
“We’ve supported a ceasefire, we’ve supported hostages being released, and we’ve supported aid getting into Gaza,” he told reporters Wednesday in Canberra when asked about Trump’s remarks. “That is consistent with what Australian governments have always done, which is to provide support.”
AVOIDING QUESTION
Albanese did not directly respond to reporters’ questions about how he would characterize Trump’s Gaza plan but did not publicly endorse it. “I’m not going to have a running commentary on statements by the president of the United States,” he said instead. “I’ve made that very clear.”
Inside the United States, Democrats predictably slammed Trump’s plan, with Democratic senator Chris Murphy saying of Trump: “He’s totally lost it.” Democratic representative Jake Auchincloss described the proposal as “reckless and unreasonable” and called for an examination of Trump’s motives, which he said often contained a “nepotistic, self-serving connection.”
Yet even some Republicans condemned the proposal, including Justin Amash, a former Republican member of the U.S. Congress who says his father was expelled from his home by Israeli forces in 1948. “If the United States deploys troops to forcibly remove Muslims and Christians – like my cousins – from Gaza, then not only will the US be mired in another reckless occupation, but it will also be guilty of the crime of ethnic cleansing. No American of good conscience should stand for this.”
Advocacy groups such as Amnesty International shared those views.
Yet, while hosting the Israeli prime minister on Tuesday, Trump called Gaza a “symbol of death and destruction” and added that the only reason people want to go back there is because they have nowhere else to go.
He said Gaza could become “the Riviera of the Middle East” where “the world’s people” could live, echoing previous sentiments of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who said Gaza had “very valuable waterfront property.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Trump as “the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House.”The Israeli leader said, “We have to finish the job in Gaza,” and stressed, “Israel will end the war by winning the war.”
Despite the international criticism, Netanyahu praised Trump for “thinking outside the box with fresh ideas.” Netanyahu that Trump is ” willing to puncture conventional thinking.”
If you are interested in articles produced by Worthy News, please check out our FREE sydication service available to churches or online Christian ministries. To find out more, visit Worthy Plugins.