Trump's Gaza plan fails reality test for Egyptian leaders

Politician Sahar Albazar says Cairo should not entertain unrealistic proposals for Gaza

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Egyptian MP Sahar Albazar has called for Arab countries to formulate an alternative to US President Donald Trump's Gaza evacuation demands, calling the White House proposal a distraction from realistic and sustainable solutions for peace.

Speaking to The National at the Munich Security Conference, Ms Albazar said the starting point in moving beyond Washington's proposal is that displacing people breaks international law.

“We should not entertain unrealistic proposals because that distracts our focus and energy in bringing about realistic, sustainable solutions for peace in the Middle East.

“If there’s no peace in the Middle East, there will be a lot of problems for neighbouring countries,” she said.

“I'm sure that the Arab world, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar were going to bring another proposal that rebuilds Gaza while keeping Palestinians in their own land."

A member of the foreign relations committee of the Egyptian House of Representatives, Ms Albazar noted the trip this week of new US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to the Middle East as a chance to change direction.

“I hope that after his visit in the Middle East we can find a common ground between the Arab proposal and the US proposal, where we can at least maintain the ceasefire,” she said. “We definitely need to empower Palestinians and push for the sustainable peace solution, which is the two state solution.”

Gaza aid

The ceasefire has led to an increased flow of aid into Gaza, but the bottlenecks imposed by Israel have again created shortages.

“We see some obstacles when it comes to the number of aid [shipments],” she said. " There are difficulties when it comes to the other party because it's definitely not a question of why one track goes and the other does not. This kind of situation creates a struggle to continue with the ceasefire.”

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Ayman Safadi, Jordan's Foreign Minister, shared the same concerns.

“I just want to address the humanitarian situation,” he told a Munich Security Conference panel. “Our priority number one is that the ceasefire holds (and) that we go through phase one, phase two and phase three of the deal.

“We have a route through which we're sending trucks; Israeli measures are not allowing us to send as much aid as we need.

“We have a problem of getting aid into Gaza. People are starving. Foods not is getting in, tents are not getting in, caravans are not getting in, medicine is not getting in. We have two hospitals operating in Gaza, and we're told horror stories of what's happening there.”

Sigrid Kaag, the UN Special Co-ordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, spoke of Palestine at risk of “dropping out of sight permanently” as a result of the situation on the ground, not just in Gaza but the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well.