President Trump is planning to meet a select group of Arab and Muslim leaders on Tuesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York to discuss ways to end the war in Gaza, two Arab officials with knowledge of the meeting said.
Why it matters: The meeting will take place several days before Trump hosts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on September 29.
- It will also take place amid a wave of recognitions of the State of Palestine by Western countries and Israeli threats to retaliate by annexing parts of the occupied West Bank.
- The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Driving the news: The White House has already sent invitations for the meeting, which is expected to take place on Tuesday at 2:30pm ET.
- The leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey have been invited to participate, according to the Arab officials.
- The White House wants the invited Arab and Muslim countries to take part in a post-war plan for Gaza and even send troops for a stabilization force that will replace the Israeli military, sources say.
- The Arab leaders are expected to ask Trump to press Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza and refrain from annexing parts of the West Bank.
- The UAE has already made clear to the White House that Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank could lead to the collapse of the Abraham Accords, which are Trump's key foreign policy achievement from his first presidential term.
Zoom out: The sources said Trump is also expected to hold on the same day a separate meeting with the leaders of several Persian Gulf countries — Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait.
- A key issue in that meeting would be the concerns of the Gulf countries about the Israeli strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar. It was the first ever Israeli attack on one of the Gulf countries.
- Arab officials say the Gulf countries want to get assurances from the Trump administration that such attacks will not happen again.
