BICOM

US Special Representative for International Negotiations, Jason Greenblatt, announced yesterday that a summit of “key countries and stakeholders” will convene in Washington next week to discuss the situation in Gaza.

Writing in the Washington Post, Greenblatt confirmed that a meeting took place in Cairo on Thursday ahead of next week’s “brainstorming session”. The White House has yet to confirm which countries attended the meeting. Greenblatt also wrote that the purpose of the meeting is “to find real solutions to the problems that Hamas has caused”.

“The humanitarian disaster caused by Hamas’s exploitation of the Palestinians of Gaza demands that we focus immediately on basics such as power, sanitation and drinking water,” he continued.

The situation in Gaza has been exacerbated by the stalled reconciliation process between Hamas ad Fatah. Israel’s Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot recently warned that basic infrastructure such as electricity, water and sewage is facing a “full collapse”.

Greenblatt said he believes there are “significant opportunities to build prosperous energy sectors,” adding that the US is “ready to work with any party truly interested in peace to reach this goal. Solving the situation in Gaza is an important step toward resolving the ultimate problem.”

The US is now thought to be “willing to play a dominant role in the process” of rehabilitating Gaza, according to BICOM Visiting Senior Fellow Brig. Gen. (res.) Michael Herzog. In the February briefing Abbas: in search of a new strategy, Herzog wrote that as the US, Egypt, EU and Israel, which presented a billion dollar infrastructure plan, “are all on board and fuelled by a sense of urgency… we may see some real progress in fixing some of the basic maladies of Gaza”.