Albares will address Trump’s plan to evacuate Gaza before MPs this week

Eduardo González The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, will appear before the plenary session of the Congress this coming Wednesday to explain the Government's position and international actions in the face of the plan of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, to evacuate the Palestinian population from the Gaza Strip. Albares will appear at the request of the EH Bildu and Republicano groups to "expose the Government's position in the face of the willingness shown by the US and Israel to initiate a plan of ethnic cleansing in Gaza to expel its population and occupy and appropriate the Palestinian territory," according to the request for appearance, presented on February 5 and qualified at the end of February by the Board of Spokespersons. The minister will also have to explain “the actions and positions that the government will adopt vis-à-vis the US and Israel, the European Union, international institutions and the international community” to confront this plan. During a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump announced on February 4 the United States’ intention to “take control” of the Gaza Strip and take charge of the reconstruction of the territory to turn it into a kind of tourist resort, under US authority (the “Riviera of the Middle East”), where “people from all over the world” will reside. This will involve, he added, the demolition of its current buildings and the forcible and “permanent” displacement of its 2.3 million Palestinian inhabitants. It was not the first time that Trump had proposed something similar. At the end of January, the American president proposed to Egypt and Jordan that they take in the million and a half displaced people from the Gaza Strip for their “accommodation” in the medium or long term, at least while the process of rebuilding the enclave lasted. Both countries have rejected this proposal and the Palestinian Authority has described it as a “flagrant violation of red lines”. Since Trump’s announcement, Albares has repeatedly rejected the US plan and warned that “Gaza is the land of the Gazan Palestinians” and is “part of the future Palestinian State, which Spain is committed to”. Separately, and also as a consequence of Trump’s proposal, the President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah al Sisi, decided to cancel an official visit to Washington in mid-February and travel instead to Spain, where he obtained, through the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, the “outright rejection of Spain and its Government” of the US plan.

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