Iran has condemned US President Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, joining other countries in the region in rejecting the plan.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday that the international community should help Palestinians “secure their right to self-determination … rather than pushing for other ideas that would be tantamount to ethnic cleansing”.
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The remarks from Baghaei come after Trump repeatedly floated an idea to “clean out” the Gaza Strip and move its entire population to Egypt and Jordan.
Trump called Gaza a “demolition site” following 15 months of Israeli bombardment that rendered most of the territory’s 2.3 million people homeless.
“‘Cleaning out’ Gaza … is part of colonial erasure of [the] Gaza Strip and the whole Palestine,” Baghaei said, adding that “no third party” can decide on the future of the Palestinian territory.
Iran and Israel, enemies for years, saw their first direct exchange of fire during the war in Gaza.
Regional rejection of the US plan comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington, DC, where he is set to become the first foreign leader to meet Trump since his return to the presidency.
Before boarding his flight in Tel Aviv on Sunday, the Israeli prime minister said he would discuss “victory over Hamas”, countering Iran and freeing all the captives held by Hamas when he meets Trump on Tuesday.
Egypt and Jordan – key US allies in the region – have sternly rejected Trump’s proposal for mass displacement in Gaza.
On Saturday, the foreign ministers of five Arab countries issued a joint statement presenting a unified stance against Trump’s call for Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians from Gaza.
Foreign ministers and officials from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League said Trump’s proposed move would threaten stability in the region, spread conflict and undermine prospects for peace.
“We affirm our rejection of [any attempts] to compromise Palestinians’ unalienable rights, whether through settlement activities, or evictions or annexation of land or through vacating the land from its owners … in any form or under any circumstances or justifications,” the statement read.
Last week, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi also said displacing Palestinians to Egypt would mean “instability for Egyptian national security and Arab national security in our region”.
“I say clearly: the displacement of the Palestinian people from their land is an injustice that we will not participate in,” el-Sisi said.
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