Egypt will present a plan for Gaza reconstruction while ensuring Palestinians remain on their land, according to a statement released by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry on Feb. 11. Egypt is preparing this plan for an emergency summit meeting of the Arab League that will take place in Cairo on Feb. 28.
At the same time, two Egyptian security sources told Reuters that President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi will not travel to Washington for talks at the White House, if the agenda includes U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to displace Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. Trump invited el-Sisi to visit Washington in a call on Feb. 1, the Egyptian presidency had said earlier. A U.S. official attempted to play down the significance of el-Sisi’s decision, saying the date of the visit had not been set.
According to a report in Al Ahram: “The Foreign Ministry statement expressed Egypt’s aspiration to cooperate with the U.S. administration, led by President Trump, to achieve a comprehensive and just peace in the region by reaching a fair settlement of the Palestinian cause that upholds the rights of the region’s peoples.
“‘In this context, the Arab Republic of Egypt emphasizes that any vision for resolving the Palestinian cause must take into account the need to avoid endangering the gains of peace in the region while simultaneously addressing the root causes of the conflict by ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and implementing the two-state solution as the only path to stability,’ the statement concluded.”
