Washington, MINA – President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that “the US will take over the Gaza Strip,” shortly after proposing the permanent resettlement of Palestinians outside Gaza.
“The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will too,” he said during a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Anadolu Agency reported.
“We will own and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, leveling the site and removing the destroyed buildings, leveling it, (and) creating economic development that will provide unlimited jobs and housing for the people in the area,” Trump said.
When asked if the US would send troops to the Gaza Strip, he said: “If necessary, we will.
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“We will take over that part. We will develop it, create thousands and thousands of jobs, and it will be something that the entire Middle East can be proud of,” he said.
Trump also said he sees the US as having “long-term ownership” of the Gaza Strip.
“I see a long-term ownership position, and I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East, and perhaps the entire Middle East…and this is not a decision that is made lightly. Everybody that I talk to likes the idea of the United States having that piece of land,” he said.
“I have studied this very carefully for months, and I have looked at it from every different angle, and this is a very, very dangerous place, and it is going to get worse. And I think this is an idea that has been tremendously — and I am speaking about this from the highest levels of leadership — has been given tremendous praise. And if the United States can help bring stability and peace to the Middle East, we will.”
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When asked if this meant he did not support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Trump said: “It doesn’t mean anything about two states or one state or the other. It means that we want to give people a chance to live.”
“They never had a chance to live because the Gaza Strip has become a hellhole for the people who live there,” he added.
Responding to a question about who would live in Gaza if Palestinians left, Trump replied: “The people of the world.”
“I think you’re going to make it a wonderful, international place. I think the potential in the Gaza Strip is incredible,” he said.
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“I think the whole world, representatives from all over the world will be there, and they’ll be there. … The Palestinians will be there. Many people will live there.”
Trump added that the Gaza Strip would be the “Riviera of the Middle East,” saying: “We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal.”
Netanyahu said: “As we discussed, Mr. President, to secure our future and to bring peace to our region, we have to finish this job.”
He added that Israel must ensure that “Gaza will never again be a threat to Israel.”
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Earlier, in a conversation with Netanyahu in the Oval Office, Trump said he thought Jordan and Egypt would accept Palestinians from Gaza, saying the enclave was a demolition site and uninhabitable.
Trump’s controversial proposal has received widespread condemnation, with many calling it “ethnic cleansing” and a “war crime.”
Jordan and Egypt, along with other regional and European countries such as the UK, France and Germany, have strongly rejected Trump’s relocation proposal. []
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
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