🧵Foreign ministers from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi, UAE & Qatar have written to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio opposing relocating Palestinians to Jordan & Egypt & calling for a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders. Let’s translate this into plain speech!
Translated to plain-speak: Arab countries, who either stood by or actively facilitated the genocide of people in Gaza - & who standby now watching killing in the West Bank - do not want to see their own fragile fiefdoms destabilised by refugees.
Arab ministers reject Trump’s call to displace Palestinians from GazaUS president has suggested that Egypt and Jordan should to take in Palestinians from Gaza.https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/1/arab-ministers-reject-trumps-call-to-displace-palestinians-from-gaza
Translated in to plan-speak: The call of these foreign ministers to establish a Palestinian state on 1967 borders means recognition of the Zionist occupying entity as a legitimate “state” permanently over >80% of historic Palestine - i.e. rewarding their genocidal occupation.
The letter explicitly talks about legitimising the “Israeli” occupation of Palestine. It is clear that these regimes are not on the side of the Palestinian people, who have not resisted occupation for >75 years simply to surrender most of their land for a pseudo-state that has no viability.
One thing I will concede: Despite subjugated language that these foreign ministers use - quite unlike that you see from the Zionist occupiers who use plain-speak in how they address their backers - their intervention does reflect the fact that if you have some degree of political power, you have a negotiating position.
That is not to say we should expect much from these regimes except self-interest. It is just to say that those of us who expect petitions or lobbying within western countries to bear fruits would do well to heed that one robust voice (which this letter is not) can do more than a million sincere voices doing their individual thing.
That’s one reason why we won’t see change until these 5 and others - who are interested in themselves and playing ball with their patrons in the Washington, London and Paris, are replaced with a sincere singular leadership that can mobilise all the various tools to change things in the Middle East.
Just to give some idea of the humiliation of these 5 writing their letter, Trump wrote to Netanyahu “It will be my honour to host you as my first foreign leader during my second term.”
Given the contrast, do they really think that a polite grovelling letter is going achieve much?
I have not changed my view over the past 15-months & more - expressed in this clip above - that there is a need for a military intervention by the official Muslim armies of the region. Despite a ceasefire there is ongoing bloodshed and conspiracy to surrender Palestine and expel its people to secure the Zionist occupation.
Abdul Wahid has been active in Muslim affairs in the UK for over 25 years. He has been published on the websites of Foreign Policy, Open Democracy, the Times Higher Educational Supplement, and Prospect Magazine. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AbdulWahid_X and elsewhere: https://linktr.ee/abdulwahid101010
