(Adnkronos) – Gaza’s post-war rebuilding should be Arab-led and with international monitors including the US, Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani said after US president Donald Trump suggested his country take over and redevelop the coastal strip, resettle its Palestinian population and turn the enclave into a Middle East ‘Riviera’.
“A transitional phase will be needed, preferably Arab-led and with an international presence, including the United States with which we cooperate,” Tajani told Italy’s Tg4 channel late Wednesday.
Italy continues to back a “two peoples two states” solution to the long-running conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, Tajani underlined.
Trump’s proposal “seems not to have been accepted by the Egyptians and Jordanians, and the Israelis have said that we have to see if the Palestinians accept it,” Tajani said.
“I believe in a Palestinian state that recognises Israel and is recognised by Israel if we are to achieve peace,” he said.
Tajani underscored Italy’s ongoing readiness to deploy peacekeepers “to re-unify Gaza and the West Bank” during the post-war transition period.
Trump’s Gaza takeover plan, which he proposed on Tuesday, was rejected by Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, by Gaza’s ruling Islamist group Hamas and by countries in the region including Jordan and Egypt and key US allies, while the UN has warned against “any form of ethnic cleansing”.
Gaza is “an integral part” of a Palestinian state the forced re-settlement of Gazans would be a serious violation of international law, Abbas said on Wednesday.
