As he toured the Center East this week, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken sounded optimistic on the prospect of Arab governments becoming a member of collectively to plan for Gaza’s future after the struggle, saying that he discovered them prepared “to do essential issues to assist Gaza stabilize and revitalize,” as he put it on Monday, throughout a cease in Saudi Arabia.
However, a minimum of in public, Arab officers have been wanting to distance themselves from discussions about methods to rebuild and govern Gaza — significantly whereas Israeli bombs are nonetheless falling on greater than two million Palestinians who’re trapped within the besieged enclave.
As an alternative, they’ve harassed that Israel and the US should implement a cease-fire, after which take steps towards a objective Arab states have pursued for many years: a critical pathway towards making a Palestinian state.
“With no steady, unbiased sovereign nation for the Palestinians, nothing else issues, as a result of it is not going to provide you with a long-term resolution for the battle that we’re seeing,” Prince Khalid bin Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to the UK, informed the BBC on Tuesday.
And on Sunday, throughout a information convention with Mr. Blinken in Qatar, Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman mentioned, “Gaza is a part of Palestinian occupied territory, which must be below Palestinian rule and management.” He added, “There isn’t any peace within the area with no complete and simply settlement.”
Mr. Blinken, who since starting his newest diplomatic mission on Friday has visited Turkey, Greece, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, in addition to Saudi Arabia and Israel, has additionally harassed the significance of a pathway towards a Palestinian state.
Formally, Arab governments have principally dismissed the notion that they may take part in postwar planning earlier than a cease-fire, arguing that this may be akin to serving to Israel clear up its mess. And they’re reluctant to be seen collaborating in Israeli visions for Gaza’s future.
Mahmoud al-Habbash, an in depth adviser to the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, mentioned that current high-level conferences held by Mr. Abbas have been narrowly centered on ending the struggle and addressing humanitarian issues. He forcefully denied that they’d touched on Gaza’s future.
“All of those conferences, consultations, and efforts are aiming to stop the aggression,” he mentioned.
However behind the scenes, Arab officers have engaged in additional pragmatic discussions, by which they assert that the Palestinian Authority — which had lengthy pursued a Palestinian state whereas being sidelined by successive Israeli governments — is the pure candidate to control postwar Gaza. That stance has not modified regardless of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu all however ruling out any governing position for the Palestinian Authority in Gaza.
On Monday, when Mr. Abbas met with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, it was partly to coordinate positions on Gaza, a Palestinian official mentioned, talking on the situation of anonymity. The official famous that Mr. Abbas was urgent for a united Arab place that helps an answer to the broader Israeli-Palestinian battle, relatively than coping with Gaza in isolation.
And on Wednesday, Mr. Abbas plans to journey to Jordan to take part in a summit with Mr. Sisi and King Abdullah of Jordan to debate the scenario in Gaza, Jordan’s state information company reported.
Mr. Abbas additionally hopes {that a} five-member committee — together with Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the Palestinians — will convene sooner or later to additional coordinate diplomatic efforts, the Palestinian official mentioned.
“What’s going down is consensus-building on the completely different pathways to the day after,” mentioned Sanam Vakil, director of the Center East and North Africa Program at Chatham Home, a London-based analysis group, referring to how Gaza shall be ruled when combating ends.
Arab nations themselves have completely different views about what a future authorities in Gaza ought to seem like, and the way succesful the Palestinian Authority is of taking on the enclave. Earlier than the struggle, Gaza had been dominated for years by Hamas, the armed group that carried out the Oct. 7 assaults in Israel.
Palestinian analysts say that the Palestinian Authority’s capacity to control Gaza would hinge on attaining unity with Hamas, which they predicted would stay a essential a part of Palestinian politics following the struggle — although Israel has repeatedly mentioned it is not going to cease combating till Hamas is destroyed.
In 2005, when Israel withdrew all its troops and residents from Gaza, it handed over energy there to the Palestinian Authority. However Fatah, the political faction that controls the Palestinian Authority, misplaced a legislative election the following yr to Hamas. In 2007, Hamas seized energy in Gaza in a brief and brutal civil struggle, dividing the Palestinians not solely territorially, however politically.
“Abbas and the Palestinian Authority need to carry Gaza again below their administration — they consider the struggle has created a serious alternative for them,” mentioned Jehad Harb, a Ramallah-based analyst. “However with out reconciling with Hamas, they’ll battle to control there. Hamas is a strong power that may stay in Gaza.”
For some Arab states, combined messaging on Gaza’s future “displays their fluid considering, and for others, the desperation of selections,” mentioned Bader Al-Saif, a professor at Kuwait College.
“There aren’t any straightforward choices there,” he mentioned.
Arab public opinion — deeply hostile towards Israel and the US, particularly because the struggle started — is essential, Mr. Al-Saif added.
“Any day-after situation that doesn’t meet the lots’ quest for dignity and justice for Palestinians will ultimately chew the completely different states of the area,” he mentioned. “I’d hold that in thoughts if I have been a policymaker.”
