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The United States has held talks with Gulf Arab states about the possibility of them administering Gaza after the war ends, US Ambassador Mike Huckabee told Reuters on Friday.
Huckabee said there had been talks about an interim governing structure involving Gulf Arab states, potentially with the US taking an oversight role, with a decision on a permanent deal to be made later.
"It's a discussion. It's not something that has been accepted by the administration, by Israel, by anyone. I'm not aware of anything that's ready for signature," he said.
After nearly two years of war, Israel has not clearly defined how it wants Gaza to be governed, although there is broad international consensus that the militant group Hamas, greatly weakened by Israel's siege, cannot remain in power.
Reuters reported in January that the UAE had discussed with the US and Israel participation in a post-war interim administration of Gaza that would include the Palestinian Authority. In May, it reported that the US had separately discussed the possibility of leading a post-war interim administration.
The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited civilian rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and was forced out of Gaza by Hamas in 2007, has said it is ready to govern Gaza with international support.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes the involvement of the Palestinian Authority and has said there will never be a Palestinian state. The creation of such a state is one of the conditions the UAE has set for participation in a post-war plan for Gaza.
Netanyahu has also stated that Israel should retain overall security control alongside an Arab-led civilian administration. However, others in his right-wing coalition want to annex Gaza.
Huckabee said the US would not join any plan with the PA if the latter continued to make payments to individuals and families involved in what the US calls acts of terrorism.
"Why would we push forward with something that violates our law? We would never do that," he said in an interview.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who wants to annex Gaza, said this week that he was negotiating with the United States on how to divide Gaza after the war ends. Huckabee said he was unaware of such talks.
"They have to surrender. They can't continue to think they have a future," Huckabee said at the US Embassy in Jerusalem.
The Israeli army this week launched a ground offensive in Gaza City, home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
The military says thousands of militants are in the city and has ordered the population to leave, predicting fierce fighting.
Amid growing international outrage, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called the events "horrific" and said the war was morally, politically and legally intolerable.
Huckabee also said that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was working on a plan for post-war Gaza, although he was not aware of the details. Blair met with President Donald Trump last month. The Tony Blair Institute declined to comment.
Asked what message Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave on the Gaza City operation during his visit to Israel this week, Huckabee said the US recognizes that "Israel must do what it must do to get its hostages and end the war."
Israel says about 20 hostages are still alive in Gaza, having been captured in the October 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the war. The militants are also believed to be holding the bodies of 28 dead hostages.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled Gaza City since Netanyahu ordered the army on August 8 to take control there, but a larger number have remained in place, either in destroyed homes amid the rubble or in makeshift tent camps. / Adapted from the Jerusalem Post /
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