ShareCAIRO/ABU DHABI: French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that Palestinian militant group Hamas should have no role in governing the Gaza Strip once its war with the Zionist entity is over. On a visit to Cairo to discuss the war, Macron said he was strongly opposed to any displacement of Palestinians, throwing his weight behind a Gaza reconstruction plan endorsed by the Arab League to counter a US proposal to send the war-ravaged territory’s inhabitants elsewhere.
Speaking alongside President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in the Egyptian capital, Macron hailed his government’s “crucial work on this plan, which offers a realistic path to the reconstruction of Gaza and should also pave the way for new Palestinian governance” in the territory. The French president said Gaza’s post-war governance should be “led by the Palestinian Authority”, dominated by Hamas’ rival party Fatah and based in the Zionist-occupied West Bank. “Hamas must have no role in this governance, and must no longer constitute a threat to (the Zionist entity),” Macron said.
Hamas has recently signaled willingness to cede power in Gaza, which the group has ruled since 2007. After a two-month truce in its 19-month offensive on Gaza, the Zionist entity resumed intense bombardment across the Gaza Strip and restarted ground operations, killing at least 1,391 Palestinians since March 18, according to the territory’s health ministry. Macron said both France and Egypt “condemn the resumption of (Zionist) strikes on Gaza”, warning of a “dramatic” worsening in the situation on the ground. Both Macron and Sisi voiced support for “an immediate return” to the ceasefire and the resumption of aid access into Gaza, which the Zionist entity blocked before renewing its offensive.
‘Realistic path’
Macron commended Egypt’s “tireless efforts” as mediator in the conflict, having brokered along with Qatar and the United States the January truce. The deal collapsed when the Zionist entity sought to extend the deal’s first phase but Hamas insisted on talks for a second phase, as originally outlined by then-US president Joe Biden. Macron and Sisi were joined on Monday by Jordan’s King Abdullah II for a summit on the war and humanitarian efforts to alleviate the war-induced suffering of Gaza’s 2.4 million people.
The visit is a show of support for Egypt and Jordan, the proposed destinations in United States President Donald Trump’s widely criticized idea to move Gazans out of the territory. Macron said that “we are firmly opposed to the displacement of populations and to any annexation of both Gaza and the West Bank”, which the Zionist entity has occupied since 1967. He said the Arab League’s plan was a “realistic path for Gaza’s reconstruction” without forcing Palestinians to leave. Sisi warned that without a “just solution” for the plight of Palestinians there will not be “lasting peace and permanent stability in the Middle East”. King Abdullah stressed the need for “a just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution”, a Palestinian state alongside the Zionist entity.
UAE
Gaza was also at the center of talks between the United Arab Emirates foreign minister and Zionist counterpart Gideon Saar on Sunday, according to an official statement said. The Emirati official pressed the need for a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict during a rare visit by Sarr to the Gulf nation.
The UAE and the Zionist entity established relations in 2020 as part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords. But there has been little bilateral contact since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al- Nahyan, the UAE deputy prime minister and foreign minister, and Saar discussed “the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip” and efforts to reach a ceasefire, said a UAE foreign ministry statement. “Sheikh Abdullah stressed the priority of working towards a ceasefire and the release of hostages,” the statement added of the meeting in Abu Dhabi. “He also reiterated the urgent need to advance a serious political horizon for the resumption of negotiations to achieve a comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution,” the statement said.
The Zionist entity did not give immediate details on the talks. But Saar said on the social media platform X that it was his second meeting with Sheikh Abdullah. “We discussed the full range of regional issues, as well as furthering bilateral relations between our countries. There are major challenges ahead of us in the Middle East, but there are partners for a better future of cooperation and stability,” Saar said. — AFP
