“Despite signs of defiance from the Arab states, most significantly Saudi Arabia, to US President Donald Trump’s Gaza ethnic cleansing plan, which visualises forced displacement of some two million Palestinians, a ‘clean out … to build Middle East’s Riviera’, the coming week will make clear if the Arab leaders’ words were just words or will translate into something more concrete.
An encouraging sign comes from what the Saudi government, media, public figures, and academics have been saying within the country and also while talking to foreign media. They have the same message: a two-state solution is a prerequisite to any normalisation.
The US president is known for taking obnoxious, absolutist positions in order to kick-start negotiations and make deals. He also remains extremely unpredictable.
But what is not is the Palestinians’ will to fight for freedom and the liberation of their land as we heard from those sitting on the rubble of their homes under which lie the remains of their loved ones. They said they weren’t going anywhere.
Is Mr Moustafa’s plan part of the well-advanced Egyptian plan that unnamed officials have been referring to? And will Arab leaders prove wrong Saad Zaghloul, the leader of Egypt’s nationalist movement in 1919, who had scoffed at the idea of Arab unity by asking ‘zero plus zero equals what?’“
Read the full op-ed by Abbas Nasir here.
