Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday that Arab states rejected U.S. President Donald Trump's widely condemned plan to displace Palestinians in Gaza and take control of the enclave,
Reuters reports.
Egypt's foreign ministry said Abdelatty, in a meeting in Washington, stressed the importance of expediting Gaza's reconstruction while Palestinians remained there.
A statement by the U.S. State Department after the meeting did not explicitly mention Trump's plan but added that Rubio "reiterated the importance of close cooperation to advance post-conflict planning for the governance and security of Gaza and stressed Hamas can never govern Gaza or threaten Israel again."
Abdelatty said he was looking forward to working with the new U.S. administration to achieve "comprehensive and just peace and stability" in the region, according to the Egyptian foreign ministry statement.
He also met with U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff in a separate meeting, where he echoed similar statements, the foreign ministry said.
Any suggestion that Palestinians leave Gaza, which they want as part of an independent state, has been anathema to the Palestinian leadership for generations and neighboring Arab states have rejected it since the Israel-Gaza war began in October 2023.
