UAE secretly lobbying US to work against Egypt’s post-war Gaza reconstruction plan, officials say

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has reportedly been lobbying the United States to reject Egypt’s plan for post-war Gaza which is backed by the Arab League, signaling a significant rift in relations between Abu Dhabi and Cairo.

At the beginning of March, Egypt unveiled its plan for the political transition, reconstruction, and recovery of the Gaza Strip following the end of Israel’s brutal offensive, with the main highlights being governance by the Palestinian Authority (PA), a Gazan security force trained by Jordan and Egypt, as well as the potential for UN peacekeepers to be deployed in the Strip and the occupied West Bank.

The Egyptian plan served as an alternative to US president Donald Trump’s proposed plans for an American takeover of Gaza and the forced expulsion of Palestinians from the territory, leading to the Arab League’s swift adoption of Cairo’s proposition. While a number of European states also backed the plan, the US and Israel predictably rejected it.

Washington’s stance is reportedly being further reinforced by the UAE, however, with a report by the news outlet Middle East Eye citing American and Egyptian officials as revealing that the Emirati ambassador to the US, Yousef al-Otaiba, has been lobbying lawmakers and those within president Trump’s inner circle to pressure Egypt into accepting the forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.

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Further claiming that the Egyptian plan is both ineffective and gives too much leeway to Palestinian resistance group Hamas, the UAE’s diplomatic mission has reportedly been attempting to get Washington to make continued military aid to Egypt conditional on Cairo’s withdrawal of its own plan and the acceptance of the Trump ‘riviera’ plan.

According to one unnamed US official, the “UAE could not be the lone state opposing the Arab League plan when it was agreed, but they are trashing it with the Trump administration”.

With Cairo receiving $1.3 billion in military aid from the US annually, $300 million of which is already conditional on human rights issues, the Trump administration has already signalled over the past month and a half that such funding will be used as leverage to force Egypt – as well as Jordan, which also receives American aid – to take in Palestinians expelled from Gaza.

That leverage was reportedly used this month, with reports last week asserting that the US has informed Egypt of the aid cut if the Egyptian government does not adequately correct its policy on the displacement of Palestinians.

The Arab Summit’s Gaza plan is a step forward, but the road ahead is long