Albares conveys to Palestinian Prime Minister support for Gaza’s Arab reconstruction plan

Eduardo González The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, conveyed this Wednesday to the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of Palestine, Mohammad Mustafa, Spain's support for the reconstruction plan for the Gaza Strip approved this week during the emergency summit of the Arab League. “We support the consolidation of the ceasefire in Gaza and the entry of aid,” Albares declared through social networks. “We welcome the Arab reconstruction plan that allows Palestinians to live in peace in their land,” he continued. For his part, according to the minister, Mohammad Mustafa “has conveyed his gratitude for Spain's position.” The conversation took place one day after the emergency Arab summit, held in Cairo and whose final declaration commits to working “with all parties” to implement the reconstruction plan for Gaza proposed by Egypt. During the joint press conference with the Secretary General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, held at the end of the summit, Mohammad Mustafa reported that the plan will be presented to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to make it a joint Arab-Islamic initiative, after which “we will go to European countries, the United States and Japan to present the plan and its details.” He also stressed the importance of the upcoming International Conference for the Reconstruction of Gaza, which will be hosted by Cairo next April with high-level participation. Mustafa also assured that the reconstruction plan will have a governance framework and an independent body that will oversee its implementation. In addition, the final declaration of the Cairo summit highlights the need to complete the ceasefire agreement in Gaza and supports the deployment of international peacekeeping forces in Gaza and the West Bank. On Monday, the Spanish government called for “consolidating the ceasefire in Gaza and moving towards a permanent ceasefire” after the conclusion of the first phase of the ceasefire and the two parties, Israel and Hamas, still have not reached an agreement on the second phase, which provides for the release of the remaining Israeli hostages and the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops. The Palestinian Prime Minister also assured that the Cairo summit confirmed the collective Arab position of rejecting the proposals for the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, presented by the President of the United States, Donald Trump. The plan of the President of the United States provides for the expulsion of the 2.3 million Gazans to Jordan and Egypt to turn the Gaza Strip into a kind of tourist resort under American authority. As a result of Trump's proposal, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al Sisi decided to cancel an official visit to Washington in mid-February and travel instead to Spain, where he received, through the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, the "outright rejection of Spain and its Government" to the American plan. For his part, Albares expressed, exactly a month ago, his total rejection of Trump's proposal, because "Gaza is the land of the Gazan Palestinians" and is "part of the future Palestinian State, which Spain is betting on." During the Cairo summit, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned on Tuesday that the reconstruction plan must be carried out with the Palestinians "in their homeland and without displacement" and called on Donald Trump to support these efforts.

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