The foreign ministers of Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have published this Monday a joint statement in which they assess as “positive” the proposal for a ceasefire and exchange of hostages for the Gaza Strip presented on Friday by the American president, Joe Biden.
“The ministers (…) have stressed that President Biden’s proposal must be treated seriously and positively to reach an agreement that guarantees reach a permanent ceasefire and allow the delivery of sufficient aid throughout the Gaza Strip to end the suffering of the population of the Strip,” the ministers noted in the published text.
The Foreign Ministers of these four countries held a telematic meeting in which they expressed their support for the mediation efforts of Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
They also agree on “the need to put end to aggression on Gaza and the resulting humanitarian catastrophe, the return of displaced people to their areas, the complete withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from the Strip.”
They also propose the beginning of “a reconstruction process within a comprehensive plan to implement the two-state solution in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions that would be implemented on a specific timetable and with binding guarantees.”
Therefore they consider that the two state solution implies an independent and sovereign Palestinian state based on the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, living side by side in security and peace with Israel in accordance with the relevant international resolutions, which is known as the Arab peace plan .
Biden’s truce proposal, announced on May 31, includes a first phase of six weeks –during which Israeli troops would abandon populated areas of the Strip and Israeli women, elderly and wounded would be released -, followed by a second phase that would include “the permanent end of hostilities” and the release of the rest of the hostages, including soldiers.
According to the American president, this second phase would require a intense dialogue since the conditions of the definitive ceasefire are still unclear, something that has also been criticized by Hamas leaders, who consider the proposal ambiguous and without a solid commitment from the US that the war will not actually be resumed.
For his part, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, He continues not to commit to the truce plan while discouragement and skepticism prevail in the Gaza Strip in the face of the umpteenth promise of a peace that does not come.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, He told a news conference that an “endless conflict in Gaza in search of some kind of total victory will not make Israel safer” because it will “exacerbate” tensions in the occupied West Bank and on the border with Lebanon.
According to the spokesperson for US diplomacy, the Israeli Army has already achieved dismantle Hamas’ offensive capabilities, so that the Palestinian Islamist group could not repeat an attack against Israel like the one on October 7 of last year.
While admitting that Hamas remains “a threat” to Israel’s security because it continues to launch rockets into its territory, Miller opined that “this situation cannot be addressed with a military response alone, but rather a political proposal is needed.”
(With information from EP and EFE)
