Kushner set to meet Hamas in Egypt Monday on Gaza stalemate
The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Turkey, Indonesia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates issued their joint statement Sunday, days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government rejected the 15-point plan that Trump’s Board of Peace unveiled in May to end the war in Gaza and clear a path to Palestinian statehood.
The plan sets out steps to implement the U.N.-adopted Comprehensive Plan to end the fighting. It requires the phased decommissioning of militia weapons, followed by corresponding phases of Israeli withdrawal. Late last month, Iran-backed Hamas — the group Israel has been fighting in the Palestinian enclave — endorsed the roadmap. The Board of Peace hailed Hamas’ commitment as a “significant breakthrough” toward ending the war.
Israel rejected the plan on August 9. In remarks that day, Netanyahu said the Israeli military will not withdraw “until Hamas is genuinely disarmed” and that there will be no Palestinian state as long as he is prime minister. “Not in Gaza and not in the West Bank,” he said.
In their joint statement, the eight ministers said Israel’s rejection “constitutes an explicit refusal to proceed with the implementation of the Comprehensive Plan, and directly threatens to derail the extensive efforts exerted by U.S. President Trump to bring an end to the war in Gaza and establish the conditions for lasting peace.” They warned that Israel bears “direct and full responsibility for any consequences resulting from its continued rejection, obstruction, delay or non-compliance, including any resulting deterioration of the situation on the ground and disruption of ending the war in Gaza.”
The ministers also called for “the urgent need for the full and immediate implementation of the Comprehensive Plan in order to address the grave humanitarian situation, ensure security and stability for all in Gaza and pave the way for reconstruction and recovery and advancing a just and lasting peace grounded in the Palestinian right to self-determination and statehood in accordance with international law, thereby paving the way for security and stability for all countries and people in the region.”
The statement was issued as Kushner — Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East envoy — was preparing to meet with Hamas in Egypt on Monday to discuss solutions to the stalemate.