Trump's Gaza plan 'unacceptable': Fidan
ANKARA

Türkiye's top diplomat on Wednesday lashed out at President Donald Trump's proposal for the United States to take over the Gaza Strip and resettle Palestinians in other countries.
“Deportation (of Palestinians) is something neither we nor the region can accept. Even thinking of it is absurd. Even launching a debate on it is wrong,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in an interview with Anadolu Agency on Feb. 5.
On a question about Trump’s proposal of sending Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan, Fidan said “This is unacceptable” and added that all regional powers have shown the same reaction.
Recalling that the source of the Palestine problem is forced displacement of Palestinians from their territories, the minister stressed that putting a similar offer on the table at a time there is a general acceptance of the need for a two-state solution in the region is wrong.
On a question about plans to exclude Hamas from administrating and reconstructing Gaza, Fidan said “We are against any attempts to by-pass the Gazan people from the management and reconstruction of Gaza. We are against, not because we are taking sides but this is against the nature of it.”
In the meantime, Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş also voiced opposition to Trump’s Gaza plan.
In an address to the Diplomatic Academy in Ankara on Feb. 5, Kurtulmuş said “This is unacceptable. Gaza belongs to Palestinians and will remain so until doomsday.”
“Those who have forgotten the lessons they have taken from Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and Gaza have no right to lead the region to another adventure,” he added.
Trump made his announcement to audible gasps during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he was hosting at the White House for talks.
In a proposal that lacked details on how he would move out more than two million Palestinians or control Gaza, Trump said he would make the war-battered enclave "unbelievable" by removing unexploded bombs and rubble, and economically redeveloping it.
"The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it, too. We'll own it," Trump said.
He said there was support from the "highest leadership" in the Middle East and upped pressure on Egypt and Jordan to take the Gazans - despite both countries flatly rejecting the idea.
Suggesting "long-term ownership" by the United States, Trump said his idea would make it "the Riviera of the Middle East. This could be something that could be so magnificent."
Hamas, which seized sole power of Gaza in 2007, rejected the proposal, branding it a" racist" idea aimed at "eliminating" the Palestinian cause.
"The American racist stance aligns with the Israeli extreme right's position in displacing our people and eliminating our cause," Hamas spokesman Abdel Latif al-Qanou said in a statement.