Egypt is reportedly pushing for a special meeting of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to solidify opposition to President Donald Trump’s proposal for moving the Palestinians out of Gaza to facilitate reconstruction.
National on Thursday quoted “sources briefed on the effort” who said Saudi Arabia and Qatar are also firmly opposed to Trump’s plan, and intend to help Egypt rally the rest of the OIC in opposition.
No firm date has been chosen for the OIC meeting, but would evidently be held sometime after the Arab League summit in Cairo on February 27.
Saudi Arabia has also invited the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to summit in Riyadh on February 20 to “discuss” Trump’s plan. Given that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas — currently serving the 20th year of the four-year term he was elected to in 2005 — has also been invited, the “discussion” is unlikely to be favorable.
Egypt seems particularly determined to talk Trump out of his Gaza plan, without much success so far, vigorously competing with Saudi Arabia for leadership of the opposition. Trump repeated his commitment to the plan as recently as Wednesday.
Part of Cairo’s strategy is to rush a reconstruction plan led and financed by Arab states into effect, making the already formidable challenge of relocating the Palestinians all but impossible for Trump. The officials who spoke to the National said Egypt envisions the OIC summit it requested as an effort to “persuade” Trump, rather than confronting him.
“What Trump has proposed can possibly be undermined and made to eventually crumble, so long as there’s Arab and Islamic unity. It’s important at this juncture to revive the old sentiments and mindset of Arab nationalism. It’s the best defence of the Palestinian cause,” one source said.
Another source told the National that Egypt wants to build Islamic unity around a 15-year plan for rebuilding Gaza, with the first three-year phase of rebuilding infrastructure to begin almost immediately.
International Crisis Group director Michael Hanna told the National that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is staying out of Washington for the time being, because he fears visiting Trump in the White House could “potentially do more harm than good.”
If Sisi confronts Trump too harshly, he could jeopardize $1.3 billion in American military assistance – but if he is seen as cooperating with Trump to inflict an “injustice” on the Palestinians, it could devastate his political support in Egypt and across the Middle East.
Sisi sent his foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty, to Washington to speak in his place. Abdelatty’s message has been that Trump’s Gaza plan “could undermine the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty and torpedo any prospect of a revival of the long-stalled Middle East peace process.”
One topic that might come up at the rash of Arab and Islamic summits over the next few weeks is if Saudi Arabia would be willing, and able, to shoulder the burden of financing aid-dependent Egypt and Jordan if Trump cuts off billions of dollars in American foreign aid.
“Pay attention to how the Gulf states are reacting to all this, because they’re the ones that are simultaneously most likely to be able to resist Trump’s pressures, and also it will send a regional signal to Egypt and Jordan as to what their options are,” Tufts University professor of international politics Daniel Drezner told ABC News on Friday.
“The Jordanians, in particular, need the money. They’re not oil rich, and same with Egypt, but in some ways the expectation would be that if Trump actually threatened to cut them off, they would likely turn first to Saudi Arabia and the Emiratis,” Drezner said.
The Times of Israel (TOI) on Friday quoted reports that Pentagon officials are warning Egypt it might lose some of its military aid if it opposes Trump’s plan for Gaza, including “supplies needed for routine maintenance and spare weapons parts.”
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