Egypt livid Trump sidelined Palestinian Authority in Gaza peace plan, sources say

Egypt is angry that the Palestinian Authority is being sidelined by US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, one Arab official and one source briefed on the matter told Middle East Eye.

Cairo said it would not send troops to partake in an international peace keeping force if there is not a clear pathway for the Palestinian Authority to govern the Gaza Strip as a step towards a Palestinian state, the source familiar with the Egyptian reaction to the plan said.

“Cairo is pissed,” the Arab official added, noting that Trump’s plan specifically requires Egyptian “buy-in” but is too “weak” on the issue of Palestinian sovereignty. The official added that Egypt is unlikely to send troops to Gaza without a clear mandate for Israel's full withdrawal from the enclave. 

When he unveiled his plan on Monday Trump leaned heavily on the support he said it had of "Arab and Muslim" leaders. He said they committed to "demilitarise Gaza" and "decommission" the military capabilities of Hamas in a joint press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

"These are very rich countries that can make things happen,” Trump said.

Egypt does not have the financial heft of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, or Qatar but Trump’s plan specifically lists Egypt and Jordan as critical security partners that can supply manpower and military knowhow.

The 20-point plan envisions a temporary International Stabilization Force (ISF) to deploy to Gaza and train and provide support to Palestinian police forces there.

“The ISF will work with Israel and Egypt to help secure border areas, along with newly trained Palestinian police forces. It is critical to prevent munitions from entering Gaza and to facilitate the rapid and secure flow of goods to rebuild and revitalize Gaza,” the plan says.

“Trump named Egypt as an integral part of his peace plan, but did not think to check whether the conditions were acceptable,” the Arab official told MEE. “Not a good start.”

Ties between Egypt and Israel have been frayed for some time. Egypt resented Israel’s decision to invade the southern Gaza border town of Rafah last year and has been upset by Israeli lobbying for it to accept forcibly displaced Palestinians. Israel has accused Egypt of militarising the Sinai Peninsula.

Some Arab officials say that ties between the US and Egypt have also been hit by Trump’s unconditional support for Israel, but several US officials denied this to MEE.

Despite this, Egypt and Jordan are already working with the US to beef up security training of Palestinian security forces. The State Department’s US Security Coordinator (USSC) office manages military ties with the PA.

The irony is that even as Trump launches diplomatic sideswipes against the embattled PA, the US deepened security training for its forces, in both Egypt and Jordan.

The training, MEE understands, has been reformed from its old focus on crowd control and policing to “counter-terrorism,” in a nod to the forces potential deployment to Gaza.

Israel has not been on board.

In Jordan, some of the weapons the PA has been training with have not been allowed back into the occupied West Bank, where the PA has limited governing experience, a US official told MEE.

Egypt has also been training more PA security forces with an eventual eye towards their deployment in Gaza, Israeli media has reported. Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said in August that Cairo would “help” or “contribute” to any international force deployed to Gaza.

Axios news reported earlier on Tuesday that several regional countries, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and Turkey were angry with Trump’s plan. According to the report, the text the White House released was different than what Trump discussed with leaders from those countries on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

The Trump plan says the Palestinian Authority will eventually take over Gaza once it has completed a "reform programme." The plan also did not guarantee the creation of a Palestinian state, as Arab leaders have requested.