Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in Jerusalem on Sunday, the place they mentioned President Trump’s insistent proposals for the US to seize the devastated Gaza Strip and drive out its Palestinian residents, amongst different issues.
The journey is Mr. Rubio’s first to the area as secretary of state, and comes as uncertainty is rising over whether or not Israel and Hamas can or are prepared to flip a tenuous cease-fire in Gaza right into a everlasting finish to their battle.
However Mr. Trump’s controversial imaginative and prescient for reworking Gaza into an American-owned “Riviera of the Center East” has overshadowed these high-stakes negotiations, and Mr. Rubio is bound to be pressed for extra readability concerning the proposal throughout his visits within the coming days to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Mr. Trump has “been very daring about what the longer term for Gaza ought to be, not the identical drained concepts of the previous,” Mr. Rubio stated in ready remarks delivered alongside Mr. Netanyahu on Sunday after the 2 met privately. “It could have shocked and stunned many, however what can not proceed is identical cycle the place we repeat over and over once more and wind up in the very same place.”
Mr. Rubio additionally talked concerning the want to look ahead to any safety threats arising from the brand new authorities in Syria, and the crucial to disarm Hezbollah in Lebanon. And he asserted that Iran is the “frequent theme in all of those challenges,” utilizing extra aggressive language to describe that nation than Mr. Trump sometimes does in calling it “the one best supply of instability within the area.”
“Behind each terrorist group, behind each act of violence, behind each destabilizing exercise, behind all the things that threatens peace and stability for the thousands and thousands of people that name this area dwelling, is Iran,” Mr. Rubio stated.
Mr. Netanyahu stated he had thanked Mr. Rubio for “America’s unequivocal backing for Israel’s coverage in Gaza in shifting ahead.” Nevertheless, Mr. Netanyahu’s authorities has but to current a long-term technique for Gaza to the Israeli or American public.
“I would like to guarantee everybody who’s now listening to us, President Trump and I are working in full cooperation and coordination between us,” stated Mr. Netanyahu, who met with the president within the White Home on Feb. 4.
Mr. Trump stunned the world together with his Gaza plan throughout a information convention that day with Mr. Netanyahu, who has since referred to as it “a revolutionary, artistic method” that ought to be studied.
Mr. Netanyahu stated on Sunday that he and Mr. Rubio had mentioned Mr. Trump’s “daring imaginative and prescient for Gaza, for Gaza’s future — how we are able to work collectively to be sure that that future turns into a actuality.”
Mr. Netanyahu stated later Sunday that “it didn’t come as a shock” when Mr. Trump offered his imaginative and prescient for Gaza to the world on Feb. 4 in Washington. “We knew about it, and we spoke about it earlier than,” the Israeli prime minister instructed his cupboard in videotaped remarks distributed by his workplace.
Some Israeli officers contemplate the concept impractical, and specialists say it could be a extreme violation of worldwide regulation.
After Arab officers within the area instantly denounced the proposal, Mr. Rubio had advised that Mr. Trump was merely making an attempt to “get a response” and “stir” different nations into offering extra help for postwar Gaza.
Since then, nevertheless, Mr. Trump has doubled down, telling reporters within the Oval Workplace on two different events and in a Fox Information interview that he intends to transfer ahead with the plan.
The compelled expulsion of Palestinians can be ethnic cleaning and a battle crime, worldwide regulation students say. Greater than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli army retaliation in Gaza for a Hamas-led assault in October 2023 that killed 1,200 individuals. Many of the useless on each side have been civilians.
Mr. Trump has stated Jordan and Egypt ought to permit the Palestinian residents of Gaza to transfer to their nations. The concept has lengthy been promoted by the Israeli proper however flatly rejected by Arab and Palestinian leaders in addition to previous U.S. presidents of each events. King Abdullah II of Jordan publicly rejected Mr. Trump’s proposal after a Wednesday assembly on the White Home that Mr. Rubio additionally attended.
Mr. Rubio stated in a radio interview on Thursday that any Arab proposal for a postwar Gaza ought to handle the mammoth job of reconstructing the territory and deploying a multinational safety drive to battle remnants of Hamas.
However that will be attainable solely as soon as the battle in Gaza comes to an finish — which relies on extending a cease-fire settlement that revolves round hostage and prisoner exchanges. The primary part of the present cease-fire settlement is ready to finish in March.
Neither Mr. Rubio nor Mr. Netanyahu made any reference of their public remarks on Sunday to the standing of negotiations for the subsequent part of the deal. Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s particular envoy to the Center East, stated in an interview with Fox Information on Sunday that talks on part two of the cease-fire deal would happen this week.
Later Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu’s workplace stated that the Israeli chief had spoken with Mr. Witkoff and knowledgeable him that he would convene Israel’s safety cupboard on Monday to focus on the second part of the settlement.
Oblique negotiations for a everlasting cessation of hostilities and the discharge of all remaining dwelling hostages from Hamas captivity have been supposed to have begun two weeks in the past and have been meant to be finalized by the top of this week. Mr. Netanyahu’s spokesman has denied that any such talks are underway.
Israel and Hamas have each asserted that the opposite get together has violated the phrases of the cease-fire. On Sunday, Hamas accused Israel of violating and exhibiting an absence of dedication to the cease-fire deal by stopping the entry of trailers into Gaza to home displaced Palestinians and delaying talks for the subsequent part of the settlement.
Israeli officers acknowledged holding up the entry of housing trailer into Gaza, saying over the weekend that the problem can be mentioned within the coming days, with out elaborating on causes for the delay.
Mr. Trump, in the meantime, seems to have given Mr. Netanyahu some leeway for altering the phrases of the deal or for resuming combating in Gaza, ought to he select to achieve this, saying in a social media submit on Saturday that the US would again any resolution made by the Israeli authorities.
Each Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Rubio spoke on Sunday of the necessity to remove Hamas’s army and governing capabilities. Israel’s Ministry of Protection introduced {that a} cargo of 2000-pound bombs, which had been held up by the Biden administration, had arrived in Israel in a single day. U.S. army officers have stated that such bombs are unsuitable for city fight, although the Israeli army has dropped them in Gaza.
Mr. Rubio’s arrival in Israel on Saturday evening got here hours after Hamas launched three Israeli hostages, together with a twin American citizen, in change for 369 Palestinian prisoners. On Sunday, Mr. Rubio launched a written assertion saying that Hamas “nonetheless holds 73 hostages together with New Jersey native Edan Alexander and the stays of 4 Individuals murdered in Gaza. They need to ALL come dwelling NOW.”
The Israeli and American governments had been pressuring Hamas for days to launch the hostages in hopes of sustaining the cease-fire first reached in mid-January with the prodding of Biden and Trump aides. Mr. Trump warned final Monday that Israel may cancel the settlement and that “all hell goes to get away” if Hamas didn’t launch all hostages by Saturday.
Mr. Rubio is on his second journey as secretary of state. He landed in Israel after a cease on the Munich Safety Convention, and was anticipated to fly to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Mr. Rubio had deliberate to cease in Qatar earlier, however that was not on the introduced schedule.
In Saudi Arabia, Mr. Rubio and two different high Trump aides plan to meet with Russian officers to focus on ending Russia’s battle in Ukraine.
Michael Crowley contributed reporting from Washington, and Patrick Kingsley contributed reporting from Jerusalem.
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