Arab Countries Prepare to Hold Summit against Gaza Displacement Plan

Palestinians walk past destroyed houses along a street in Al-Shatea refugee camp amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, 07 February 2025. (EPA)
Palestinians walk past destroyed houses along a street in Al-Shatea refugee camp amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, 07 February 2025. (EPA)
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Arab Countries Prepare to Hold Summit against Gaza Displacement Plan

Palestinians walk past destroyed houses along a street in Al-Shatea refugee camp amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, 07 February 2025. (EPA)
Palestinians walk past destroyed houses along a street in Al-Shatea refugee camp amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, 07 February 2025. (EPA)

Consultations are underway to hold an emergency Arab summit to counter US President Donald Trump’s plans to displace the residents of the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

An informed diplomatic source told Asharq Al-Awsat on Friday that contacts are underway between members of the Arab League to hold the summit in Cairo.

The summit aims to coordinate Arab stances to confront the Palestinian displacement proposal and to draft reconstructions plans for Gaza.

The source said talks are underway to set a date for the summit.

Egypt said on Friday it had been in contact with Arab partners including Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to firm up the region's rejection of any displacement of Palestinians.

Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty had been in communication with counterparts from 11 nations, a statement said.

Those had emphasized "the constants of the Arab position on the Palestinian cause, rejecting any measures aimed at displacing the Palestinian people from their land, or encouraging their transfer to other countries outside the Palestinian territories," it said.

Trump has suggested the US take control of Gaza from Israel and create a "Riviera of the Middle East" after resettling Palestinians elsewhere including Egypt and Jordan. But Arab nations want to see a two-state solution with a separate Palestinian homeland alongside Israel.

Moving Palestinians would represent "flagrant violation of international law, an infringement on Palestinian rights, a threat to security and stability in the region and an undermining of opportunities for peace and coexistence among its peoples," Egypt's statement said.

Meanwhile, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi stressed to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres the need to speed up Gaza’s reconstruction to ensure that life returns to normal in the coastal enclave.

They stressed during a telephone call their rejection of the displacement of the Palestinians and the need for them to remain Gaza. They underscored the importance of international efforts to that end.

Moreover, Sisi emphasized the need for the implementation of the two-state solution that would secure the establishment of an independent Palestinian state according to the 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital.

Sisi and Guterres also tackled Egypt’s efforts to consolidate the ceasefire in Gaza. They discussed the prisoner and hostage exchange between Hamas and Israel and the delivery of aid to Gaza.



US to Impose Sanctions on Sudan After Finding Government Used Chemical Weapons 

People transport their belongings as they return to Salha, south of Omdurman, two days after the Sudanese army recaptured it from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), on May 22, 2025. (AFP)
People transport their belongings as they return to Salha, south of Omdurman, two days after the Sudanese army recaptured it from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), on May 22, 2025. (AFP)
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US to Impose Sanctions on Sudan After Finding Government Used Chemical Weapons 

People transport their belongings as they return to Salha, south of Omdurman, two days after the Sudanese army recaptured it from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), on May 22, 2025. (AFP)
People transport their belongings as they return to Salha, south of Omdurman, two days after the Sudanese army recaptured it from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), on May 22, 2025. (AFP)

The United States said on Thursday it would impose sanctions on Sudan after determining that its government used chemical weapons in 2024 during the army's conflict with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, a charge the army denied.

Measures against Sudan will include limits on US exports and US government lines of credit and will take effect around June 6, after Congress was notified on Thursday, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.

"The United States calls on the Government of Sudan to cease all chemical weapons use and uphold its obligations under the CWC," Bruce said, referring to the Chemical Weapons Convention treaty banning the use of such weapons.

In a statement, Sudan rejected the move, and described the allegations as false.

"This interference, which lacks any moral or legal basis, deprives Washington of what is left of its credibility and closes the door to any influence in Sudan," government spokesperson Khalid al-Eisir said on Friday.

The war in Sudan erupted in April 2023 from a power struggle between the army and the RSF, unleashing waves of ethnic violence, creating the world's worst humanitarian crisis and plunging several areas into famine. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and about 13 million displaced.

Washington in January imposed sanctions on army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, accusing him of choosing war over negotiations to bring an end to the conflict.

The US has also determined members of the RSF and allied militias committed genocide and imposed sanctions on some of the group's leadership, including RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

Bruce's statement said the US had formally determined on April 24 under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991 that the government of Sudan used chemical weapons last year, but did not specify what weapons were used, precisely when or where.

"The United States remains fully committed to hold to account those responsible for contributing to chemical weapons proliferation," Bruce said.