Donald Trump gestures in the Oval Office — Under Donald Trump’s plan, Gaza’s residents would be permanently displaced to allow massive reconstruction as a high-end ‘international’ leisure and business destination. Photograph: Yuri Gripas/UPI/Rex/Shutterstock

US and Israel contacted officials in Sudan, Somalia and Somaliland, according to AP

Sudanese officials say they have rejected a request from the US to discuss taking in Palestinians displaced from Gaza under Donald Trump’s plan to turn the territory into a “Riviera on the Mediterranean”.

According to an Associated Press report, the US and Israel contacted officials in Sudan, Somalia and Somaliland about resettling uprooted Palestinians. The contacts suggested both countries are determined to press ahead with Trump’s proposal despite international outrage and massive practical difficulties – or at least use the plan to force other actors in the region to come up with their own ideas for Gaza when hostilities finally end.

Two officials from war-torn Sudan confirmed to the Associated Press that the Trump administration had approached the military-led government about accepting Palestinians.

One said the contacts began even before Trump’s inauguration with offers of military assistance in the army’s fight against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, assistance with postwar reconstruction and other incentives. Both officials said the Sudanese government rejected the idea. “This suggestion was immediately rebuffed,” said one official. “No one opened this matter again.”

Under Trump’s plan, Gaza’s more than 2 million residents would be permanently displaced to allow massive reconstruction as a high-end “international” leisure and business destination. Experts said any forced resettlement was illegal under international law.

Initially, Egypt and Jordan were suggested as destinations for displaced Palestinians, but both strenuously opposed the plan.

Palestinians in Gaza have also rejected the proposal and dismiss Israeli claims that the departures would be voluntary. Arab nations have offered an alternative multibillion-dollar reconstruction plan that would leave the Palestinians in place.

The White House says Trump “stands by his vision”.

Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a secret diplomatic initiative, US and Israeli officials also described to the Associated Press news agency contacts with Somalia and the breakaway Somaliland region. They said it was unclear how much progress the efforts made or at what level the discussions took place.

Outreach from the US and Israel to the three potential destinations began last month, days after Trump floated the Gaza plan, according to the US officials, who said that Israel was taking the lead in the discussions.

Israeli officials and the White House have declined to comment on the efforts. The offices of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Ron Dermer, the Israeli minister who has been leading Israel’s postwar planning, also had no comment.

Netanyahu has hailed Trump’s proposal as a “bold vision”, while Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister and a longtime advocate of what he calls “voluntary” emigration of Palestinians, has recently said that Israel was working to identify countries to take in Palestinians.

International legal experts have told the Guardian that, given the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, any such emigration could be unlawful and potentially constitute a war crime.

Sudan was among the four Abraham accord nations that agreed to normalise diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020 but was plunged almost immediately into a civil war marked by widespread atrocities, including ethnically motivated killing and rape, according to the UN and rights groups.

US officials, seemingly aware that few Palestinians would be keen to relocate to such a precarious state, attempted to sweeten any deal by offering a range of incentives to Sudan’s government, including an offer of assistance to the army in its fight against the RSF which, in turn, is backed by the United Arab Emirates, a significant US ally.

The proposal, if accepted, would have meant the US backing a side it has accused of war crimes and joining the same side in the conflict as Russia, at a time when Vladimir Putin is contemplating the American proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine.

Before the revelations, Sudan had already indicated it would not entertain any attempt to resettle Palestinians in a country coping with the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The head of Sudan’s army and de facto president, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan – subject of the US sanctions – last week told a summit in Cairo that his country “categorically rejects” any plan that aims to transfer “the brotherly Palestinians from their land under whatever justification or name”.

The Guardian has contacted Sudan’s ministry of foreign affairs for comment.

Somaliland, a territory of more than 3 million people in the Horn of Africa, seceded from Somalia more than 30 years ago, but it is not internationally recognised as an independent state.

An American official involved in the efforts confirmed to the Associated Press that the US was “having a quiet conversation with Somaliland about a range of areas where they can be helpful to the US in exchange for recognition”.

An official in Somaliland, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media, said his government had not been approached and was not in talks about taking in Palestinians.

Somalia is an even more unlikely destination. Mogadishu has been a vocal supporter of the Palestinians, and joined the recent Arab summit that rejected Trump’s plan. A Somali official told the Associated Press the country had not been approached about taking in Palestinians from Gaza and there had been no discussions about it.

In recent years, Somalia has developed strong ties with Arab states and with Turkey. Much of the country is ruled by al-Shabaab, an extremist Islamist militia allied with al-Qaida.

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