Trump to meet officials from Muslim-majority countries to discuss Gaza

Audio By Carbonatix

Enlarge

By Kanishka Singh and Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump will meet leaders and officials from multiple Muslim-majority countries on Tuesday and discuss the situation in Gaza, which has been under a mounting assault from Washington’s ally Israel.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday that Trump will hold a multilateral meeting with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan. A person familiar with the matter said Gaza will be discussed.

Axios reported Trump will present the group with a proposal for peace and post-war governance in Gaza.

In addition to freeing hostages and ending the war, Trump is expected to discuss U.S. plans around an Israeli withdrawal and post-war governance in Gaza, without Hamas involvement, according to Axios.

Washington wants Arab and Muslim countries to agree to send military forces to Gaza to enable Israel’s withdrawal and to secure funding for transition and rebuilding programs, Axios reported.

Trump will address the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, a day after dozens of world leaders gathered at the United Nations to embrace a Palestinian state, a landmark diplomatic shift nearly two years into the Gaza war that faces fierce resistance from Israel and the United States.

The nations said a two-state solution was the only way to achieve peace, but Israel said the recognition of a Palestinian state was a reward to extremism.

Israel’s assault on Gaza since October 2023 has killed tens of thousands, internally displaced Gaza’s entire population, and set off a starvation crisis. Multiple rights experts, scholars and a U.N. inquiry assessed it amounts to genocide.

Israel calls its actions self-defense after an October 2023 attack by Palestinian Hamas militants that killed 1,200 people and in which more than 250 were taken hostage. Israel has also bombed Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Qatar during the course of its war in Gaza.

Trump had promised a quick end to the war in Gaza, but a resolution remains elusive eight months into his term.

Trump’s term began with a two-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which ended when Israeli strikes killed 400 Palestinians on March 18. More recently, images of starving Palestinians, including children, have sparked global outrage against Israel’s assault on Gaza.

In February, Trump proposed a U.S. takeover of Gaza and a permanent displacement of Palestinians from there. It was labeled as an “ethnic cleansing” proposal by rights experts and the United Nations. Forcible displacement is illegal under international law. Trump cast the plan as a re-development idea.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Steve Holland in Washington; editing by Chris Reese and Michael Perry)