• UAE president tells Rubio he won’t support expulsion
• WHO to resume mass vaccination against polio in Gaza
MADRID: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday rejected a controversial proposal by US President Donald Trump to displace Palestinians from the conflict-stricken Gaza Strip.
The Arab League is scheduled to hold an extraordinary meeting in Cairo on March 4 in response to Trump’s plan to take over Gaza and permanently move its Palestinian inhabitants elsewhere, including to Egypt and Jordan, and then redevelop the coastal territory into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan also 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 Gulf state’s WAM news agency said.
Speaking in Madrid ahead of the gathering, Sisi called for the “international community’s support and adoption of a plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip without displacing the Palestinian people — I repeat, without displacing the Palestinian people — from their land, which they cling to, and their homeland, which they do not agree to relinquish”.
Sanchez, one of the staunchest defenders of the Palestinian cause within the European Union, agreed, saying “Gaza belongs to the Palestinians and is part of the future Palestinian state”. “Their expulsion would not only be immoral and contrary to international law and United Nations resolutions, but would also have a destabilising effect,” the Socialist premier added.
The two leaders also signed a declaration upgrading Egypt-Spain relations to a “strategic partnership”, as well as several memorandums of understanding in various fields including illegal migration and defence. Trump’s plan sparked an outcry from Arab governments as well as from world leaders, and the United Nations warned against “ethnic cleansing” in the Palestinian territory.
US official’s visit to UAE
US official Marco Rubio’s visit to the UAE comes ahead of a Friday summit in Saudi Arabia of the six-state Gulf Cooperation Council, as well as Egypt and Jordan, in order to respond to Trump’s Gaza plan. He departed Abu Dhabi after a brief stop in the UAE, the final leg of his first Middle East tour, which included discussions on a proposal by US President Donald Trump to place Gaza under US control and relocate its inhabitants.
The trip also saw breakthrough talks with Russian officials in Riyadh a day earlier, with discussions on issues including efforts to end the Ukraine war. The UAE president “stressed the need for the reconstruction of Gaza to be linked to a path leading to comprehensive and lasting peace based on the two-state solution”, WAM reported.
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. Trump has proposed putting the Gaza Strip, devastated by more than 15 months of conflict with Israel, under US control and moving its 2.4 million inhabitants, mainly to neighbouring Jordan and Egypt.
On Sunday, during his first stop in Jerusalem, the US secretary of state offered unwavering US support to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, giving Israel the green light to proceed however it chooses in Gaza, where a fragile ceasefire took effect on Jan 19.
Polio vaccination in Gaza
The World Health Organisation said on Wednesday that mass polio vaccination would resume in Gaza on Saturday, targeting nearly 600,000 children, after the virus was again detected in the Palestinian territory. The United Nations health agency said no more polio cases had been reported since a 10-month-old child was paralysed in Gaza last August.
But it said that poliovirus had been found again in wastewater samples taken in the Gaza Strip in December and January, “signalling ongoing circulation in the environment, putting children at risk”. “The presence of the virus still poses a risk to children with low or no immunity, in Gaza and throughout the region.” A new campaign would therefore take place from February 22 to 26, with the aim of reaching more than 591,000 children with oral polio vaccines, it said.
