Reading Saudi Arabia's Direction for Gaza's Future After Trump's Plan

Saudi Arabia, leading the Arab nations, is currently seeking alternative measures to thwart U.S. President Donald Trump's intention to expel Palestinian residents from Gaza.

As the most politically and economically powerful country in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia's stance is key in determining the future of Gaza, especially after Trump expressed his interest in relocating Palestinians from Gaza and constructing a luxurious Middle Eastern Riviera complex there.

After expressing disagreement with Trump's plan, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman immediately convened Arab leaders in Riyadh on Friday (21/2/2025). The Arab leaders gathered in Riyadh to draft a post-war reconstruction plan for Gaza to replace Trump's proposal for the United States (US) to take over the territory after expelling Palestinian residents.

Seven major Middle Eastern political players met in Riyadh on Friday. They are the kingdom's de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Jordan's King Abdullah II, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad Al Sabah, and Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa.

The Egyptian President's office stated that Sisi has departed the Saudi capital after meeting with the leaders of Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Middle East observer, Professor of History and Lecturer in the Arabic Studies Program, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, University of Indonesia, Yon Machmudi, said that Saudi Arabia's stance was clearly a subtle signal to state that it disagreed with Trump's plan.

"If Saudi Arabia agreed, it would have been conveyed up front. They also did not want to say frankly that they disagreed, but wanted to state that this was a joint decision of the Arab Gulf countries," he said in Jakarta, Saturday (22/2/2025).

Yon said, currently Saudi Arabia's position is very important for the US. Especially after Saudi Arabia's success in holding the US-Russia meeting. Saudi Arabia is also important for the US economy. Among them are the US aircraft purchase contracts that are very large in value, oil, and US businesses in the Middle East still rely on the money of Saudi princes.

Thus, Trump will most likely consider Saudi Arabia's stance. "Trump also will not want to sacrifice US interests without a guarantee that someone will bear the cost of reconstruction," he said.

So far there has been no official statement regarding the results of the meeting in Riyadh on Friday. The official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) only reported that the meeting was a brotherly consultative talk.

The discussion included an exchange of views on various regional and international issues, particularly joint efforts to support the Palestinian struggle and developments in the situation in the Gaza Strip.

Saudi sources said the delegates discussed Egypt's version of the plan for Gaza's future during the meeting. Arab leaders see alternative plans for Gaza's reconstruction as essential after Trump used the high cost of Gaza's reconstruction as a justification for relocating Palestinians.

However, the meeting in Riyadh still encountered two major obstacles, namely the failure to agree on who should govern Gaza and how reconstruction could be funded.

Although there have been no concrete results and there are still differences of opinion, the meeting sent an important message, namely the unity of the Arab Gulf countries in facing Trump's plan to expel the Palestinian population from Gaza.

The meeting in Riyadh will be one of the most important meetings before the Arab League emergency meeting to be held in Cairo, Egypt, on March 4, 2025. According to SPA reports, the decisions taken at the informal meeting in Riyadh on Friday will be included in the agenda of the meeting in Cairo.

The meeting in Riyadh, coordinated by Saudi Arabia, showed the unity of Gulf Arab states to thwart Trump's plans.

Previously, Riyadh firmly rejected Trump's wishes. The Saudi Foreign Ministry said it had warned the US administration about the rights of the Palestinian people and reiterated that it would not establish diplomatic relations with Israel if certain conditions were violated.

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also reiterates its firm rejection of any violation of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, whether through Israeli settlement policies, land annexation, or attempts to expel the Palestinian people from their lands,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement, just a night after Trump expressed his interest.

Riyadh added that its position was non-negotiable and non-compromising.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also reiterated its firm rejection of any violation of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

In addition, the expulsion of Palestinians undermines the potential for normalizing diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, one of Trump’s goals. Saudi leaders have said they will not recognize Israel if Palestinians are expelled from Gaza, or if Israel refuses to create a path toward the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The author of a book on Hamas and the Middle East, Rami G Khouri, believes that this development shows three Arab dimensions that have rarely been seen so far.

"These aspects are signs of the revival of collective political and diplomatic action of Arab countries, their effective capabilities, and their self-esteem," he said in his article published on the website of the Arab Center Washington DC study center, February 21, 2025.

According to Khouri, the first dimension is the ability of Arab countries to make serious counter-proposals to rebuild Gaza, without displacing its indigenous population. This is a step beyond simply responding to and rejecting the Israeli-American proposal for ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza with words alone.

The second dimension is the concept of united Arab collective action to protect the Palestinians by making a viable reconstruction plan for Gaza. Such a plan would also include close coordination with other countries around the world, especially those that have rejected the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.

The third and most important dimension is Saudi Arabia's position, which simultaneously rejected Trump's plan and led the response of other Arab countries.

Today, Saudi Arabia is the most powerful Arab country, with the greatest potential for political and economic influence globally. This is due to its energy assets, financial strength, Islamic religious leadership, and strategic location.

But for the past half century, the country has often shied away from taking a strong role as a regional leader. This time, Khouri sees Saudi Arabia as starting to take on that leadership role.

This was done when Saudi Arabia led the Arab world in proposing the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative for peace with Israel. "Saudi Arabia is arguably now playing a more constructive role in the Middle East and the world," Khouri said.

This includes diversifying its strategic relations with regional and global powers, as demonstrated by its successful hosting of US-Russian diplomatic talks on the Ukraine war on February 18, 2025.

Khouri said how well Saudi Arabia manages the new coalition of Arab states to rebuild Gaza will be a major test of its ability to lead Arab states in launching important initiatives.

For that, Saudi Arabia needs deep political coordination with various other parties. "Not unilateral actions that most Arab countries have taken in recent years," he said.

Trump's plan has complicated the position of Arab countries. Riyadh, which is friendly with Trump, has gained many diplomatic, military and economic benefits from its closeness to Washington. A frontal rejection by Saudi Arabia could undermine this closeness.

Meanwhile, Egypt and Jordan are heavily dependent on US economic support. According to US State Department data, since 1978, the US has given Egypt more than $50 billion in military aid and $30 billion in economic aid. Jordan has received more than $1 billion annually in recent years.

As a result, Egypt and Jordan have limited diplomatic room to maneuver with the US. Both countries have accepted Trump's pressure to accept Gazans into the Middle East Riviera scheme.

On the one hand, the Arab countries are trying to ease bilateral tensions with the US to maintain good relations and aid flows.

However, they are of one mind on one thing that the US cannot violate, namely that they will not accept the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza.

“I reiterate Jordan’s firm position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This is a position that unites the Arabs. That is, rebuilding Gaza without displacing Palestinians and addressing the dire humanitarian situation must be a priority for all parties,” King Abdullah II of Jordan wrote in a post on X, shortly after meeting Trump at the White House on February 11, 2025.

During the meeting with Trump in Washington, King Abdullah II also said Egypt would present a plan for the next steps.

The Gaza Strip was largely destroyed after more than 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas. The United Nations estimates that reconstruction of Gaza will cost more than $53 billion.

Cairo has not officially released details of its proposal. Former Egyptian diplomat Mohamed Hegazy has said the plan consists of three technical phases lasting 3-5 years.

“The first phase, which will last six months, will focus on initial recovery and debris removal,” he said.

The second phase would involve an international conference to establish a detailed plan for reconstruction and restoration of infrastructure. The final phase would include the provision of housing and services and the establishment of a political path to implement the solution of two independent Palestinian states alongside Israel.

An Arab diplomat familiar with Gulf issues said the biggest challenge facing Egypt's plan is how to finance it.

Andreas Krieg, a lecturer at the School of Security Studies and a research fellow at the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies at King’s College, London, said this was a unique opportunity for Saudi to rally all the Arab Gulf states.

Cairo’s proposal includes funding of up to $20 billion over three years. “The details are unclear and there is confusion among stakeholders about what the plan includes,” said one official involved in the Gaza negotiations in Riyadh.

The Egyptian proposal includes a national committee to govern Gaza and reconstruction. Funding is planned to come from the Gulf and other foreign countries, including the US, and financing organizations.

The grand plan requires coordination and financial commitment from the Arabs to be implemented. This financial commitment is crucial for the Arab plan to be accepted by Trump.

Palestinians fear Trump’s proposal would destabilize the region, and that the expulsions would repeat the “Nakba,” or catastrophe, of the 1948 war that gave birth to Israel.

At that time, nearly 800,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homeland, many of whom were forced to flee to refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, as well as in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

To this day, their descendants suffer more than 75 years later. Palestinians say they face discrimination in some of those countries.

Speaking at a Miami conference hosted by a nonprofit affiliate of Saudi Arabia's sovereign fund, U.S. Middle East envoy Steven Witkoff said Trump's comments on Gaza were merely recommendations for solutions, not impositions. (AP/REUTERS/AFP)