Saudi Arabia Rejects Trump's Push to Expel Palestinians From Gaza

Trump says U.S. will take over ownership of the Gaza Strip

Saudi Arabia has rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s push to ethnically cleanse Gaza and said there will be no diplomatic ties with Israel until there is a Palestinian state, and its position is “non-negotiable.”

Riyadh issued its rebuke in the form of a statement shortly after Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. The statement said Saudi Arabia’s position on “the establishment of a Palestinian state is firm and unwavering.”

The statement said Saudi Arabia “will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that.”

Trump’s comments, next to a smirking Netanyahu, were seen as remarkably dense and tone-deaf because his reasoning for forcing Gazans from the enclave was that it is unlivable. Netanyahu was responsible for the destruction.

Larry Johnson, the former CIA analyst, told the “Deep Dive” podcast that he believes Trump made the comment to reporters knowing that it would get rejected by Arab states.

“Now in negotiations with Netanyahu, he’ll say, ‘Hey, I tried. I made a public request and Jordan, and Egypt, and all of the Gulf States, including the Saudis, have come back and said, ‘Not just no…but hell no.’”

Last month, Trump used the momentum from the ceasefire between Israel and Gaza to express hope to expand the “historic” Abraham Accords, which aimed to deliver Arab-Israeli normalization and would be a major win for Tel Aviv.

He said his administration will “continue promoting PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH throughout the region, as we build upon the momentum of this ceasefire to further expand the Historic Abraham Accords.”

Long forgotten by now, the Arab League’s 22 member states offered Israel a comprehensive formula for peace in 2002 that called for normalization in return of the land stolen after the Six-Day War in 1967.

Marwan Muasher, wrote for the Carnegie Endowment that “Riyadh spearheaded the effort that led to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which promised full peace and security for Israel by all Arab states if Israel withdrew to its 1967 borders. Settling for anything less, particularly after October 7, is nearly impossible for Saudi Arabia.”

Matt Duss, the executive vice president at the Center for International Policy, and the former chief foreign-policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., mentioned the deal during a Q&A with the New Yorker in June 2024.

Duss said there has been an offer on the table, “not just from Saudi Arabia but from the entire Arab League, going back to 2002, for full peace and normalization with Israel if Israel follows U.N. Security Council Resolutions, follows international law, withdraws from the occupied territory, and enables the creation of a Palestinian state.”

Israel has shown no interest in going forward with such an offer, and Trump’s own son-in-law Jared Kushner spoke out about how Gaza could be valuable real estate because it is a coastal enclave.

Daniel Haqiqatjou, the American Muslim political commentator, posted on X that a ceasefire in Gaza would provide Riyadh room to agree to such a proposal.

“As I stated last year: The biggest reason Muslims should not support Trump is he will supercharge the Abraham Accords and complete the leverage Israel has over Gulf states and beyond,” he noted.

Sarah Leah Whitson is the executive director of the nonprofit Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), wrote in Time magazine weeks after the Hamas attack that the Abraham Accords should be killed.

She wrote that the accord emboldened Israel to “further ignore Palestinian rights.”

“Let’s be clear: Continued Arab adherence to the Accords signals continued support for Israel, rewarding it with the military, economic, and trade development that were always the primary goal,” she wrote.