عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

UK Quietly Hosts Talks on Gaza Reconstruction

Palestinians walk among destroyed buildings in Gaza City, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025, after Israel and Hamas agreed to a pause in their war and the release of the remaining hostages. (AP)
Palestinians walk among destroyed buildings in Gaza City, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025, after Israel and Hamas agreed to a pause in their war and the release of the remaining hostages. (AP)
TT
TT

UK Quietly Hosts Talks on Gaza Reconstruction

Palestinians walk among destroyed buildings in Gaza City, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025, after Israel and Hamas agreed to a pause in their war and the release of the remaining hostages. (AP)
Palestinians walk among destroyed buildings in Gaza City, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025, after Israel and Hamas agreed to a pause in their war and the release of the remaining hostages. (AP)

Dozens of top officials from Middle East and European nations huddled Monday with leading global financial institutions for talks in the UK on rebuilding the devastated Gaza Strip.

Far from a high-profile Gaza summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, the UK's foreign ministry quietly brought together Middle East and European officials at an isolated mansion deep in the southern English countryside.

The aim of the three-day conference was to start the "crucial planning and coordination efforts for postwar Gaza" which would be Palestinian-led, the UK prime minister's office said in a statement.

"We must be ready to act -- to clear rubble, rebuild homes and set up infrastructure, restoring access to education and healthcare," junior foreign minister Hamish Falconer added in a statement.

"We know the scale of the task. We know how urgent it is, and how complex it will be," he added, highlighting it "will take years and cost billions".

The Israeli assault on Gaza -- triggered by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel -- has left much of the Palestinian territory in ruins and most of its population displaced.

The UK government said the talks in Wilton Park, West Sussex, which is managed by the Foreign Office, brought together "representatives from businesses, civil society and governments, to convene crucial planning and coordination efforts for postwar Gaza".

The Palestinian Authority was represented along with officials from countries such as Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Germany and Italy, the UK prime minister's office said.

Officials from the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development were also attending to support what Falconer called an Arab Reconstruction Plan.

"We must also lay the groundwork for long-term economic development," Falconer said, insisting that "Gaza and Palestine more broadly, has real economic potential".

The talks aimed to examine how to "unlock the vast resources needed, not just through traditional donor finance, but by thinking creatively to bring in private capital", he said.

The UK was well-placed to help, with "deep expertise in private investment and strong links to the City of London", he added.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

Iraqi Security Delegation to Visit Tehran to Address Attacks on Kurdistan

Kurdistan President Masrour Barzani and Iraqi PM Ali al-Zaidi meet in Erbil. (Kurdistan government media file photo)
Kurdistan President Masrour Barzani and Iraqi PM Ali al-Zaidi meet in Erbil. (Kurdistan government media file photo)
TT
TT

Iraqi Security Delegation to Visit Tehran to Address Attacks on Kurdistan

Kurdistan President Masrour Barzani and Iraqi PM Ali al-Zaidi meet in Erbil. (Kurdistan government media file photo)
Kurdistan President Masrour Barzani and Iraqi PM Ali al-Zaidi meet in Erbil. (Kurdistan government media file photo)

Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Masrour Barzani held talks in Baghdad on Sunday with new Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi on pending issues between Baghdad and Erbil.

Iraqi National Security Adviser Qasim al-Araji said: “There is great understanding between the federal government and the Kurdistan Region on the need to resolve disputes and pending issues to ensure the interests of all Iraqi citizens.”

Speaking at a joint press conference with Barzani, he revealed that a senior joint security delegation from Baghdad and Erbil will soon visit Tehran.

The delegation will represent Baghdad in the Iraqi-Iranian High Security Committee that was previously announced, he added.

The committee will meet to address the attacks that have targeted Kurdistan and Iraq during the recent military conflict in the region, he went on to say. It will also tackle other issues of common interest.

For his part, Barzani said that Araji stressed his rejection of the attacks on Kurdistan and the whole of Iraq.

Araji did not disclose the date of the delegation’s visit.

Iraqi observers in Baghdad said the development marks a shift in the new Iraqi government’s stance towards the attacks that were likely launched by pro-Iran Iraqi armed factions, which have targeted Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, or by Iran against Erbil and other Kurdish regions.

Spokesperson for the Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces Sabah al-Numan had recently revealed that al-Zaidi had formed a committee that includes security agencies to probe the attacks against Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The committee will visit Riyadh and Abu Dhabi to further investigate the attacks.

An informed security source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the official authorities and security agencies “are fully aware of the movements of the armed factions and the attacks they have carried out and their motivations for doing so.”

“The countries that have been targeted continue to have positive stances and they strongly support the peace negotiations,” it added.

It noted that the attacks “are an embarrassment to the new Iraqi government, which has nevertheless expressed a determination to resolve the issue” and cooperate with the concerned countries.

This marks a shift in Baghdad’s stance towards the possession of weapons outside the authority of the state, explained the source.

Arab World

Israel Military Says Soldier Killed in southern Lebanon

Smoke rises following an Israeli strike on the southern village of Nabatieh on May 24, 2026. (Photo by Abbas Fakih / AFP)
Smoke rises following an Israeli strike on the southern village of Nabatieh on May 24, 2026. (Photo by Abbas Fakih / AFP)
TT
TT

Israel Military Says Soldier Killed in southern Lebanon

Smoke rises following an Israeli strike on the southern village of Nabatieh on May 24, 2026. (Photo by Abbas Fakih / AFP)
Smoke rises following an Israeli strike on the southern village of Nabatieh on May 24, 2026. (Photo by Abbas Fakih / AFP)

Israel said on Monday a soldier was killed in southern Lebanon, taking to 23 the number of its troops killed in the war with Iran-backed Hezbollah.

A military statement named him as 19-year-old Sergeant Nehoray Leizer of the 601st Combat Engineering Battalion, who "fell in combat in southern Lebanon".

During the incident in which Leizer was killed, "an additional soldier was severely injured", the Israeli military said separately on Telegram.

A total of 24 Israelis have been killed in the conflict, 23 soldiers and one civilian contractor, since hostilities began on March 2.

Arab World

Hezbollah Chief Says Hopes for Iran-US Deal and That It Includes Lebanon

A poster of Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem (L) is displayed near another of the group's late leader Hassan Nasrallah outside shelters at the Imam Ali Housing Compound, where displaced Lebanese and Syrian refugees take refuge by the city of Hermel in Lebanon's northeastern Bekaa valley on February 4, 2026. (AFP)
A poster of Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem (L) is displayed near another of the group's late leader Hassan Nasrallah outside shelters at the Imam Ali Housing Compound, where displaced Lebanese and Syrian refugees take refuge by the city of Hermel in Lebanon's northeastern Bekaa valley on February 4, 2026. (AFP)
TT
TT

Hezbollah Chief Says Hopes for Iran-US Deal and That It Includes Lebanon

A poster of Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem (L) is displayed near another of the group's late leader Hassan Nasrallah outside shelters at the Imam Ali Housing Compound, where displaced Lebanese and Syrian refugees take refuge by the city of Hermel in Lebanon's northeastern Bekaa valley on February 4, 2026. (AFP)
A poster of Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem (L) is displayed near another of the group's late leader Hassan Nasrallah outside shelters at the Imam Ali Housing Compound, where displaced Lebanese and Syrian refugees take refuge by the city of Hermel in Lebanon's northeastern Bekaa valley on February 4, 2026. (AFP)

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem expressed hope Sunday for an agreement between Iran and the United States and that Lebanon, where Israel and the Iran-backed group are at war, would be part of its terms.

Hezbollah and Israel have clashed since the group drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 by firing rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran's supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes.

Iranian officials have said an understanding with Washington to halt the regional war will include Lebanon.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that US President Donald Trump had reaffirmed his support for Israel's right "to defend itself against threats on all fronts, including in Lebanon".

"God willing, this agreement will be finalized and there are signs of its completion, and accordingly that we too will be among those included in this agreement -- an agreement of a full cessation of hostilities," Qassem said in a televised address broadcast on Hezbollah's Al-Manar television channel.

The speech marked the anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000 after around two decades of occupation and following persistent pressure from Hezbollah.

Qassem said that Iran, which has provided Hezbollah with funding and weapons for decades, "is on top" and would emerge from the regional war "with its head high".

Expectations of a Middle East deal come as Lebanon prepares for a fourth round of direct talks with Israel in Washington on June 2 and 3, preceded by a meeting between military delegations at the Pentagon on May 29.

- 'Existential threat' -

Qassem again repeated his group's rejection of direct talks, charging that key Israel ally Washington "is not an honest broker".

"Direct negotiations are completely unacceptable and are a pure gain for Israel," he said, addressing Lebanese authorities who last year committed to disarming Hezbollah and then banned its military activities after the latest war erupted.

"Abandon the direct negotiations and do not give to America so that it gives to Israel... Return to the national understanding," he added.

"Don't be with them and stab us in the back. You won't gain anything, and it's better for you to stand with your country."

Despite heavy losses in 2023-2024 hostilities with Israel and the current war, Hezbollah refuses to disarm, arguing that its weapons are an internal Lebanese matter and not up for discussion in Washington.

"Disarmament means stripping Lebanon of its defensive capability and the capability of the resistance (Hezbollah) and this people, paving the way for annihilation," he said.

"Disarmament is annihilation and we cannot accept it."

A state monopoly on weapons demanded by Lebanese authorities "at this stage is aimed at targeting the resistance and is an Israeli project" whose objective is to "annihilate the resistance".

"All the facts prove that we and our people face an existential threat," Qassem said.

"We will not bow, even if the whole world turns against us."