UAE, partners renew push for Gaza peace plan

Foreign ministers from the UAE and seven other countries have expressed deep concern over the continuing humanitarian suffering in Gaza.

Meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, ministers from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan stressed the need to advance reconstruction efforts and preserve stability in the territory.

In a joint statement, they called on Israel to fulfil its outstanding commitments under the first phase of the Comprehensive Plan, including ensuring the immediate and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid and early recovery supplies, and helping restore critical infrastructure.

They also stressed the need to preserve the ceasefire and end all violations.

The ministers said the Road Map is a key part of the Comprehensive Plan and provides the framework for its second phase.

This includes the decommissioning of armed groups alongside a full Israeli withdrawal, the deployment of an International Stabilization Force, and the transfer of responsibility across Gaza to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza.

The second phase would also include the start of early recovery and reconstruction across the territory.

The ministers rejected any measures aimed at expelling or forcibly displacing Palestinians from their homeland, or changing the territorial or demographic character of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

They also condemned illegal measures to consolidate Israeli control and annexation, including settlement expansion, land confiscation, the demolition of Palestinian homes, settler violence and forced displacement.

The ministers expressed concern over measures that undermine the historical and legal status quo at Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.

They welcomed recent measures by the United Kingdom, as well as wider European and national efforts, in response to Israeli settlement activity.

They called for further measures to halt settlement expansion and ensure accountability for settler violence.

The ministers also stressed that Gaza must remain an integral part of Palestinian territory.

They said implementation of the Comprehensive Plan should help reunify Gaza with the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and create a credible and irreversible path towards Palestinian self-determination and an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, based on the two-state solution.

The joint statement commended US President Donald Trump’s leadership and stressed what they described as the indispensable role of the United States in implementing the Comprehensive Plan.

The ministers called for sustained US engagement to ensure all parties, including Israel, meet their commitments and to overcome obstacles to the Road Map.

They also reaffirmed their readiness to work with the US, the Board of Peace, the Palestinian Authority and other relevant parties to implement the Comprehensive Plan and its Road Map, ease the suffering of Palestinians, advance their right to self-determination and statehood, and work towards a just and lasting peace in the region.