There was no final communique, press conference or details of when the meeting started or ended, in contrast to standard protocol when Arab leaders meet. Instead, a single photo was released on Friday, showing Arab leaders standing shoulder-to-shoulder in Saudi Arabia for what the kingdom called an “informal brotherly gathering”, though with lofty discussion on Gaza’s future.
This unusual level of secrecy around the high-level meeting indicates how sensitive these talks are for Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, leaders from other Gulf states, Egypt’s president and Jordan’s king, who all attended.
While their only photo from the gathering shows them standing together, what’s at stake is whether they can reach a consensus and unite around an Egyptian plan for Gaza that’s starkly different to the one laid out by President Donald Trump in recent weeks.
Arab states are scrambling to address Trump’s vision for Gaza, in which he says the U.S. should take ownership of the territory, displace all its 2 million Palestinians permanently to countries like Egypt and Jordan, and turn this sliver of beachfront territory into a real estate project.
The plan has strained the basic outlines of an already shaky ceasefire in Gaza following more than 15 months of war and Israeli airstrikes that have decimated the territory and killed at least 48,000 people, most of them women and children, according to the Palestinian health ministry. The war erupted when Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing around 1,200 people there and taking hostages in October 2023.
