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UAE says Gaza reconstruction can only happen with political clarity
The rebuilding of the Strip cannot take place without a plan for independent Palestinian state, said diplomatic advisor to the President
- PUBLISHED: Wed 26 Feb 2025, 4:42 PM
The UAE on Wednesday said that the reconstruction of Gaza is the path forward but there needs political clarity before committing billions of dollars.
Dr Anwar Gargash, diplomatic advisor to the UAE President, said reconstruction cannot take place without a path to a two-state solution.
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“We have to work together to de-escalate. The region, in the past year, has gone through a geopolitical earthquake. We will need time to absorb what that means for us due to the damage that we see in Gaza, South Lebanon and the situation in Syria after 13-14 years of civil war. We need to take stock of the situation and clearly understand the path forward. The path forward is a reconstruction (of Gaza) but with political clarity. You can't just go and invest billions without political clarity and come back to see yet another conflict (in Palestine),” said Gargash.
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He added that all the Arabs are stepping up efforts to address the Palestinian issue.
“The statement of President Sheikh Mohamed is very clear that we’re completely against any movement of Palestinians out from Gaza. So the idea basically is, how we can have arrangements that will actually rebuild devastated Gaza and ensure that we don't have a reoccurrence of another war,” he said during a panel discussion at the Investopia 2025.
He said the international community can't really wiggle its way out and need to contain the issue. “The conclusion is we do need a bold plan of reconstruction, but that plan of reconstruction must ensure that we don't go back to the situation of conflict, and the Palestinians actually have a state of their own,” he said.
He said the US President Donald Trump is a “disrupter” in many areas, but the Arab state system was up to the challenge.
Arab League meeting
Hassan El Khatib, Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade of Egypt, said the details of the Palestinian plan will be decided next week at the Arab League meeting in Cairo on March 4.
He added that the Palestinian issue getting all Arabs together and in one direction. “I agree with the UAE that at the centre stage is a plan for Palestinians to build their own country. Second, it's the two-state state solution that is at the heart of everything. We want not just de-escalation but de-risking of the region we want.”
Dr Anwar Gargash noted that the UAE foreign policy mainly revolves around geoeconomics to drive not just the local economy but the region.
“We are looking forward and trying very much on geoeconomic policies where the focus is investment and trade to geo-technological where we have a foothold in cloud computing and AI.”
Gargash stressed that standardising geopolitical risk in the Arab world is unfair because the Arab region extends from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.
“Thriving region is in everybody’s interest. More cooperation among regional countries and greater learning from each other is good. I am a believer in the free market. This is part of UAE’s success,” he said, adding that the macro picture of the world looks at a young population with huge unemployment. “We need to create more opportunities and drive for that free economy.”
