Yousef al-Otaiba, the UAE ambassador to the United States, said Abu Dhabi was "going to try" to find common ground with the U.S. preisdent but called the plan "difficult"
While the United Arab Emirates regards U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza as “difficult,” Abu Dhabi has yet to see “an alternative to what’s being proposed,” the Emirati envoy to the United States said Wednesday.
Speaking with Al Arabiya‘s Hadley Gamble at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, UAE Ambassador to the United States Yousef al-Otaiba said Abu Dhabi was “going to try” to find common ground with Trump.
“We are agile, we make our voices heard and we are very outspoken and unapologetic about this, so just like any relationship, sometimes our friends listen to us, sometimes they don’t, sometimes we agree on certain positions, sometimes we disagree. We’ve always strived to find common ground,” said al-Otaiba.
“But at the end of the day, we’re all in a solution-seeking business; we just don’t know where it’s going to land yet,” he continued.
Asked whether the UAE was working on an alternative to Trump’s plans to relocate the Gazan population, al-Otaiba said, “Not yet.”
“I don’t see an alternative to what’s being proposed. I really don’t,” the Arab diplomat admitted, before adding: “So if someone has one, we’re happy to discuss it, we’re happy to explore it, but it hasn’t surfaced yet.”
Trump has suggested that the United States will “take over” the war-torn Gaza Strip, speaking during a press conference at the White House alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Feb. 4.
Initially, Trump said Palestinians could later opt to return to Gaza, but he reversed himself on Feb. 10, telling Fox News host Bret Baier that Palestinians who leave the Strip would not return under his plan “because they’re gonna have much better housing” elsewhere.
Trump has suggested that Gazans would be moved to one large site or various locations. In an unverified report, Israel’s Channel 12 News claimed that areas under consideration are Morocco, Somaliland and Puntland, a region in northeast Somalia that declared itself a country in 1998.
Netanyahu has voiced his support for Trump’s proposal, and a survey found that a majority of Israeli Jews support it as well.
Previously, Netanyahu had said that he was working to establish an administration in the Strip by Palestinians “who are not committed to our destruction, possibly with the aid of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and other countries that I think want to see stability and peace.”
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