Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to the Middle East for a few days beginning next week for his second trip at the head of the State Department.
Rubio will visit Israel, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia after attending the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Fox News confirmed on Thursday.
While an itinerary has not yet been released, Rubio’s impending visit to the Middle East comes at a pivotal time in foreign policy, as Israel and Hamas are implementing a three-stage ceasefire agreement after 16 months of war in Gaza.
During a joint news conference in the Dominican Republic with President Luis Abinader on Thursday, Rubio said President Donald Trump has offered to be part of the solution to rebuild Gaza.
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Trump suggested on Wednesday that the U.S. take control of the Gaza Strip in order to rehabilitate the territory to a livable location as most of the area has been decimated and millions are displaced.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Wednesday that under Trump’s proposal, Palestinians would be “temporarily” relocated in order to successfully level and rebuild.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on board with the proposed plan, describing it as “remarkable” and “the first good idea that [he’s] heard.”
“President Trump is taking it to a much higher level,” Netanyahu said from the White House with Trump on Wednesday. “He sees a different future for that piece of land that has been the focus of so much terrorism, so much, so many attacks against us, so many, so many trials and so many tribulations. He has a different idea, and I think it’s worth paying attention to this.”
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Rubio said “there are a lot of countries in the world that like to express concern about Gaza and the Palestinian people, but very few [were] willing, in the past, to do anything concrete about it.”
Gaza, which is run by Hamas terrorists, is not only uninhabitable because of the destruction from the war with Israel, but because of unexploded munitions, rockets and weapons that plague the land, Rubio said, adding that “it needs to be dealt with.”
“If some other country is willing to step forward and do it themselves, that would be great, but no one seems to be rushing forward to do that and that has to happen,” Rubio said Thursday.
The secretary of state said he thinks Trump proposed the Gaza takeover idea in hopes of getting a reaction from countries who “have the economic and technological capacity to contribute to a post-conflict region.”
As of Friday morning, no other country has spoken out about a potential plan to rehabilitate Gaza.
