Representatives from a coalition of Arab nations rejected a proposal by President Donald Trump on Saturday that sought to relocate displaced Palestinians from Gaza into nearby Jordan and Egypt.
In a joint statement following a meeting in Cairo, the foreign ministers and officials from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, the Palestinian Authority, and the Arab League said such a move would threaten stability in the region, spread conflict, and undermine prospects for peace.
"We affirm our rejection of [any attempts] to compromise Palestinians' unalienable rights, whether through settlement activities, or evictions or annex of land or through vacating the land from its owners ... in any form or under any circumstances or justifications," the joint statement read.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One last weekend, Trump said he had spoken with King Abdullah II of Jordan about potentially building homes and moving more than 1 million Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring countries.
"I said to him that I'd love you to take on more, because I'm looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now and it's a mess. It's a real mess," Trump said.
"You're talking about a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing. I don't know.
"Something has to happen, but it's literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything's demolished, and people are dying there," he said.
"So I'd rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different location, where I think they could maybe live in peace for a change."
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Wednesday rejected the idea that Egypt would facilitate the displacement of Palestinians and said Egyptians would take to the streets to express their disapproval.
"Displacement of the Palestinian people from their land is an injustice that we cannot take part in," he said.
Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel program at Arab Center Washington D.C., urged Trump's statement be condemned and labeled it "outrageous."
"Trump says all kinds of things," Munayyer told Al Jazeera. "Sometimes, they're things that he means. Sometimes, they're things that he doesn't mean.
"Sometimes, they're things that he heard in a conversation that he had five minutes ago. Sometimes, they're things that he thinks he heard but misunderstood."
On Thursday, Trump reiterated his call for Egypt and Jordan to take in residents of the Gaza Strip, saying: "We do a lot for them, and they are going to do it," in apparent reference to abundant U.S. aid, including military assistance, to both nations.
Any suggestion that Palestinians leave Gaza, territory they want to form part of an independent state, has been anathema to the Palestinian leadership for generations and repeatedly rejected by neighboring Arab states since the Gaza war began in October 2023.
Jordan is already home to several million Palestinians, while tens of thousands live in Egypt. The foreign ministries of Egypt and Jordan have both rejected Trump's suggestion in recent days.
The Arab ministers also welcomed Egypt's plans to hold an international conference with the United Nations that would be focused on rebuilding Gaza, which has been mostly flattened during the 15 months war between Israel and Hamas. No date has been set yet for the conference.
The foreign leaders concluded their statement by saying they look forward to working with the Trump administration to "achieve a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East, in accordance with the two-state solution."
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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