Arab countries backtrack on Trump plan; some Arab leaders are unwilling to participate in Cairo summit

Afghan Voice Agency (AVA) - International Service: While the Arab summit was supposed to be held in Cairo on February 17, Arab diplomatic sources reported that the summit will be postponed.

 

Qatar's Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed newspaper reported, citing these sources, that some Arab leaders were unwilling to participate in the summit. The stated goal of the summit was to confront US President Donald Trump's plan to forcibly relocate Palestinians to countries such as Egypt and Jordan.

 

The sources said that the meeting will probably be held on March 4th and explained the reasons for the postponement: The first reason was to provide more time for the Arab plan on Gaza and its future and reconstruction.

 

The second reason was to convince all Arab leaders to participate in the meeting, as some leaders were hesitant to attend the meeting. The third issue is to reach an agreement with Palestinian groups on the future of the Gaza Strip.

 

Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed reported that the postponement of the meeting was very surprising, because last Saturday, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry had held a meeting with some representatives of Arab countries to make technical preparations for the meeting. Egyptian sources reported that Egypt had had contacts with Arab countries in recent days, but some prominent Arab leaders did not have "sufficient desire" to attend the meeting and did not definitively announce that they would attend the meeting.

 

According to the newspaper, the excuse of the Arab leaders is that the Cairo meeting will be held after the Riyadh meeting, and that the views of the Arab countries on the future of Gaza and its reconstruction will be raised at the Riyadh meeting, and these views will be examined at the Cairo meeting. Of course, some Arab countries believe that the Riyadh meeting, which is scheduled to be held on February 20, is more important than the Cairo meeting, and for this reason they are not willing to participate in another meeting.

 

According to Fars, Hossam Zaki, Deputy Secretary-General of the Arab League, announced yesterday that the date of the emergency Arab meeting in Cairo will probably be postponed because some Arab leaders are not willing to attend the meeting.

 

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry recently announced that Cairo will host the meeting on February 27 to review developments related to the Palestinian issue. Egypt said that the meeting will be held at the request of the Palestinian Authority and after coordination with several Arab countries.

 

Arab diplomatic sources reported that the meeting will discuss ways to counter the plan to forcibly displace the Palestinian people and evacuate the Gaza Strip, and that the Arab leaders will decide to adopt a unified stance in support of Egypt and Jordan. They will also discuss humanitarian issues and the future of the Gaza Strip.

 

According to the sources, Egypt and Jordan emphasized that the meeting should include Arab leaders at the highest level so that they can show that this meeting is of great importance to them. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordanian King Abdullah II had proposed this plan. Meanwhile, the Egyptian President's visit to Washington was postponed until after the meeting, so that al-Sisi could present a plan supported by Arab countries during his meeting with Donald Trump that would respond to the plan to forcibly displace the people of Gaza and occupy their land.