Saudi Arabia said it would not establish ties with Israel unless a Palestinian state is created, shooting down U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that the Saudis were not demanding a Palestinian homeland when he floated the idea of the U.S. government taking control of the Gaza Strip.
Trump said on Tuesday at a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he wants the U.S. to take over the Gaza Strip, which has been ravaged by the Israel-Hamas war, after Palestinians are resettled in other countries.
‘The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too,’ Trump said at the White House. ‘We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous, unexplored bombs and other weapons on the site.’
‘Level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area,’ he said. ‘Do a real job. Do something different. Just can’t go back. If you go back, it’s going to end up the same way it has for 100 years.’
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that the country rejects any attempts to displace the Palestinians from their homeland, stressing that its position on the Palestinians is not up to negotiation.
The statement noted that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has affirmed the kingdom’s position in ‘a clear and explicit manner’ that does not make other interpretations possible under any circumstances.
Any proposed displacement of Palestinians, an idea Trump has suggested multiple times since retaking office last month, is a highly sensitive matter for both Palestinians and Arab countries.
Trump said on Jan. 25 that he wanted Jordan, Egypt and other Arab nations to accept more Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip, potentially moving out enough people to ‘just clean out’ the area.
‘You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing and say, ‘You know, it’s over,” he said at the time.
Amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Palestinians feared they would suffer from another ‘Nakba,’ meaning catastrophe in Arabic, which refers to the displacement and dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the 1948 war at the birth of the State of Israel.
The U.S. had led months of diplomacy to convince Saudi Arabia to normalize ties with Israel and recognize the Middle Eastern country. But the war in Gaza, which began with Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on the Jewish State, prompted the Saudis to abandon the matter amid Arab anger over Israel’s offensive.
Trump wants Saudi Arabia to follow in the footsteps of countries including the United Arab Emirates, a Middle East trade and business hub, and Bahrain, which signed the Abraham Accords in 2020 and normalized ties with Israel.
Saudi Arabia establishing ties with Israel would be a grand prize for the Jewish State because the kingdom has huge influence in the Middle East and the wider Muslim world, and it is the world’s biggest oil exporter.
Reuters contributed to this report.