Egypt, Spain Reject US Plan to Displace Gazans

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (R) and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi hold a signed agreements following their meeting at Moncloa Palace in Madrid, Spain, 19 February 2025. (EPA)
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (R) and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi hold a signed agreements following their meeting at Moncloa Palace in Madrid, Spain, 19 February 2025. (EPA)
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Egypt, Spain Reject US Plan to Displace Gazans

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (R) and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi hold a signed agreements following their meeting at Moncloa Palace in Madrid, Spain, 19 February 2025. (EPA)
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (R) and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi hold a signed agreements following their meeting at Moncloa Palace in Madrid, Spain, 19 February 2025. (EPA)

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday rejected a controversial proposal by US President Donald Trump to displace Palestinians from the war-devastated Gaza Strip.  

The Arab League is scheduled to hold an extraordinary meeting in Cairo on March 4 in response to Trump's plan to take over Gaza and permanently move its Palestinian inhabitants elsewhere, including to Egypt and Jordan, and then redevelop the coastal territory into the "Riviera of the Middle East".  

Speaking in Madrid ahead of the gathering, Sisi called for the "international community's support and adoption of a plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip without displacing the Palestinian people -- I repeat, without displacing the Palestinian people -- from their land, which they cling to, and their homeland, which they do not agree to relinquish".

Sanchez, one of the staunchest defenders of the Palestinian cause within the European Union, agreed, saying "Gaza belongs to the Palestinians and is part of the future Palestinian state".

"Their expulsion would not only be immoral and contrary to international law and United Nations resolutions, but would also have a destabilizing effect," the Socialist premier added.  

The two leaders also signed a declaration upgrading Egypt-Spain relations to a "strategic partnership", as well as several memorandums of understanding in various fields including illegal migration and defense.  

Trump's plan sparked an outcry from Arab governments as well as from world leaders, and the United Nations warned against "ethnic cleansing" in the Palestinian territory.



ISIS Kills Five Kurdish Fighters in Eastern Syria

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters sit on a vehicle in the north of Raqqa city, Syria. (Reuters file)
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters sit on a vehicle in the north of Raqqa city, Syria. (Reuters file)
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ISIS Kills Five Kurdish Fighters in Eastern Syria

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters sit on a vehicle in the north of Raqqa city, Syria. (Reuters file)
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters sit on a vehicle in the north of Raqqa city, Syria. (Reuters file)

The ISIS militant group said on Monday it killed five Kurdish fighters in an attack in eastern Syria's Deir Ezzor, according to the group's news agency.

The spokesperson for Syria's Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces Farhad Shami confirmed to Reuters that five members were killed in the attack which he described as "one of deadliest" against the group in a while.

Deir Ezzor city was captured by the ISIS group in 2014, but the Syrian army retook it in 2017.

Former ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a so-called “caliphate” over a quarter of Syria and Iraq in 2014 before he was killed in a raid by US special forces in northwest Syria in 2019 as the group collapsed.

It has been recently trying to stage a comeback in the Middle East, the West and Asia.