Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó admits that President Donald Trump’s proposals can be “shockingly innovative,” but says that the world should not dismiss his Gaza Strip idea.
UNITED NATIONS — President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the U.S. “take over” the Gaza Strip has garnered negative reactions across the globe and even from within his own party.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó, however, doesn’t think the world should be so quick to dismiss President Trump’s proposal. Szijjártó compared the Gaza proposal to another of Trump’s “shockingly innovative” ideas in a paradigm-shifting move the president made shortly before leaving office in 2020.
“I would like to remind everyone that when President Trump announced his plan regarding the Abraham Accords, there was hardly anyone in the world who would have believed in the success in those agreements, right? And at the end of the day, he made it, and the Abraham Accords have brought a totally new dimension to the life of the Middle East,” Szijjártó told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
TRUMP SAYS US WILL ‘TAKE OVER’ GAZA STRIP, REBUILD IT TO STABILIZE MIDDLE EAST
The Abraham Accords saw Israel sign treaties with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. There was speculation that had Trump won the 2020 election, Saudi Arabia would have been next to sign a treaty. However, the Saudis made it clear on Tuesday that the country would not forge ties with Israel without the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“This is maybe the most complicated issue nowadays in the world, how to make long-term peace in the Middle East,” Szijjártó said, adding that “when it comes to President Trump, I would not exclude anything.”
On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu became the first foreign dignitary to visit the White House since Trump’s return to the Oval Office. His visit came as Israel continues to grapple with the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre nearly 16 months later.
During a joint press conference with Netanyahu, Trump announced his proposal to have the U.S. “take over” the Gaza Strip, saying it would give the Palestinians an opportunity to “live out their lives in peace and harmony.”
“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too,” Trump said. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous, unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site.”
“Level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area,” he added. “Do a real job, do something different, just can’t go back. If you go back, it’s going to end up the same way it has for 100 years.”
Hamas, the terrorist organization currently ruling over the Gaza Strip, broke its silence on Wednesday and slammed Trump’s proposal as a “recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region.”
