Rubio to visit Israel, Arab states in mid-February: State Dept

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will pay his first visit to the Middle East this month, a senior State Department official said Thursday, in the wake of President Donald Trump’s remarks on relocating Gaza’s population.

Rubio will attend the Munich Security Conference and then visit Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia from February 13-18, the official said.

Trump stunned much of the world on Tuesday when — after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — he suggested sending US forces to occupy the war-battered Gaza Strip and removing its two million people.

Rubio later said that Trump was speaking of a temporary relocation as the United States finances reconstruction of the territory following Israel’s relentless assault in response to an unprecedented Hamas attack.

Speaking earlier Thursday on a visit to the Dominican Republic, Rubio suggested that Trump was also seeking support for Gaza’s reconstruction from countries that “have both the economic and technological capacity” to support Gaza — a likely reference to wealthy Gulf Arab states.

“I think President Trump has offered to go in and be a part of that solution, and if some other country is willing to step forward and do it themselves, then that would be great,” Rubio said.

“But no one seems to be rushing forward to do that, and that has to happen,” he said.

The senior State Department official said that Trump had started a conversation on Gaza’s future that Rubio would continue.

“You have to seriously talk about it,” the official said.

-AFP