US president says different international locations within the Center East may very well be tasked with rebuilding elements of the war-ravaged enclave.
United States President Donald Trump has reiterated his controversial proposal to take management of Gaza, saying he’s dedicated to “shopping for and proudly owning” the war-ravaged enclave.
Talking to reporters on board Air Power One on Sunday, Trump stated Gaza needs to be considered a “huge actual property website” and different international locations within the Center East may very well be tasked with dealing with its redevelopment.
“So far as us rebuilding it, we might give it to different states within the Center East to construct sections of it; different individuals might do it, by means of our auspices,” Trump stated whereas en path to New Orleans to attend the Tremendous Bowl.
“However we’re dedicated to proudly owning it, taking it, and ensuring that Hamas doesn’t transfer again. There’s nothing to maneuver again into. The place is a demolition website.”
Trump additionally claimed that displaced Palestinians would like to not return to Gaza regardless of his proposal prompting backlash from Palestinian representatives and far of the worldwide neighborhood.
“If we might give them a house in a safer space – the one motive they’re speaking about returning to Gaza is that they don’t have an alternate. After they have an alternate, they don’t need to return to Gaza,” the US president stated.
Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs Gaza, reiterated its opposition to Trump’s proposal on Sunday, calling his newest remarks “absurd”.
“Gaza just isn’t a property that may be purchased and offered, and it’s an integral a part of our occupied Palestinian land,” Izzat al-Risheq, a member of the Hamas political bureau, stated in an announcement shared on Telegram.
“Coping with the Palestinian subject with the mentality of an actual property vendor is a recipe for failure,” al-Risheq added.
“Our Palestinian individuals will thwart all displacement and deportation plans. Gaza belongs to its individuals.”
Earlier on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump’s proposal as “revolutionary” and “artistic” whereas addressing a cupboard assembly held hours after his return from Washington, DC, the place he held talks with the US president.
Trump shocked Palestinians and the worldwide neighborhood on Tuesday by proposing that Washington take over Gaza as a part of an audacious redevelopment plan that he claimed might rework the enclave into “the Riviera of the Center East”.
The US president doubled down on his suggestion the next day, after officers from his administration tried to dampen blowback to the proposal by insisting that any resettlement of Palestinians can be non permanent.
Trump, an actual property developer earlier than coming into politics, has offered few particulars about how he would implement his proposal, which might face large sensible hurdles along with elevating authorized and moral issues.
After initially saying he was open to the potential of sending the US navy into Gaza, Trump later stated that no American troopers can be wanted to hold out the plan.
Neighbouring states resembling Egypt and Jordan have roundly rejected calls to soak up displaced Palestinians regardless of Trump’s suggestion that they may very well be resettled in “different international locations of curiosity with humanitarian hearts”.
On Sunday, Saudi Arabia condemned a suggestion by Netanyahu that the dominion’s land be used to ascertain a Palestinian state.
“The dominion affirms that the Palestinian individuals have a proper to their land, and they aren’t intruders or immigrants to it who will be expelled every time the brutal Israeli occupation needs,” the Ministry of Overseas Affairs stated in an announcement, accusing the Israeli chief of trying to “divert consideration” from Israel’s ongoing “crimes” in Gaza.
