Since the beginning of the year, the US has been leading a contact group of top ministers from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority aimed at advancing a plan for the post-war management of the Gaza Strip.
The Arab ministers have also been meeting to coordinate as a group independently of the US. In April, they finished drafting their post-war vision, which included immediate international recognition of a Palestinian state, the establishment of a peacekeeping force in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and the launch of peace talks between Israel and the PA to be completed within two years, leading to a transfer of Israeli control of West Bank crossings to the PA, according to leaked passages of the proposal obtained by the US.
While the US supports the broader two-state solution that the six Arab partners are trying to advance, it deemed their proposal “completely unrealistic,” according to a senior Arab diplomat familiar with the matter.
But recognizing that it could not simply reject the Arab proposal without offering an alternative, the State Department drafted a series of principles that could be used as a basis for continued talks with partners in the Middle East, the Arab official said.
The official acknowledged that the initiative has not been a top priority for the Biden administration, which is putting much more weight into first securing a hostage deal that will bring about an end to the Israel-Hamas war that was sparked by the terror group’s October 7 onslaught. READ MORE