President Donald Trump calls the meeting a good and successful gathering of leaders

By Sadiq Abdulfatah

The US President Donald Trump holds meeting with leaders of several Arab and Islamic countries with the focus on how to end the ruinous war in the Gaza Strip.

The official Emirati news agency WAM reported on Wednesday that the participants in the meeting, held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, included Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, King Abdullah II of Jordan and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Also in attendance were Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Indonesian President Prabowo Subiant, as well as foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the agency said.

Discussion also explored reaching a “sustainable and lasting” ceasefire, securing the release of all hostages and taking steps towards addressing the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, WAM added.

The meeting came amid a wave of Western recognition of Palestinian statehood, a step Criticized by Israel and its close ally. According to Donald Trump the U.S. president, the Tuesday discussion is a “very good and successful meeting.” Israel was not represented.

However, Trump plans to receive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House next Monday. Negotiations brokered by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt to hammer out a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas have been stalled for months.

Various proposals have been floated over how the coastal strip should be secured and administered after a possible end to the war of nearly two years. Trump had previously proposed to resettle Gazans elsewhere and turn the coastal enclave into a Middle East “Riviera” but the proposal met with fierce criticism.

Source: The Nation