Tuesday the King Abdullah II of Jordan rejected President Trump’s proposal for his country to absorb the Palestinians who live in Gaza, saying that he remained against a plan that Trump has established to free the territory so that the United States can grasp its control.
During a “constructive” meeting with the President of the United States in the White House, he said King Abdullah, “reiterated the rescue position of Jordan against the displacement of the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank”.
“This is the unified Arab position,” he said in a post on social media after the meeting. “Reconstruct Gaza without moving the Palestinians and facing the terrible humanitarian situation should be the priority for everyone.”
His statement came hours after Mr. Trump insisted on the fact that the United States had the authority to “take” Gaza, part of an effort to press pressure on the leader of Jordan and other Arab nations to embrace forced removal , which aroused a widespread sentence.
“We will have Gaza,” said Trump, while sat next to Mr. Abdullah and the hereditary prince Hussein of Jordan. “It is an area devastated by the war. We will take it. We will hold it back. We will love him. “
Mr. Abdullah widely diminished when he was asked by journalists the proposal of Mr. Trump, describing the president as a force for peace in the region and saying that Jordan was ready to help the sick Palestinian children.
But according to his declaration, Mr. Abdullah was more direct with Mr. Trump in private.
“Reaching peace based on the two -states solution is the way to guarantee regional stability,” said King Abdullah in the mail. “This requires leadership in the United States.”
The meeting came a week after Mr. Trump said he wanted the United States to grab Gaza control and wanted Jordan and Egypt to re -entering about two million Palestinians who call him home. Both Jordan and Egypt rejected the idea when Trump raised him last week in a press conference with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Tuesday, in a declaration on social media, a spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said that the country would work with the United States on a “only settlement of the Palestinian cause”, but reiterated that the Palestinians had to be authorized to remain in theirs homeland.
The meeting with King Abdullah equivalent not only to a fundamental moment for a key ally in the Middle East, but more generally for the future of Gaza.
The interviews came when the agreement ceased to cease the war in the war in the Gaza strip seemed to be at risk of rupture. Mr. Netanyahu warned Hamas Tuesday that if the hostages had not been released at noon Saturday, then the Israeli troops would resume “intense fights”. His declaration echoed to an ultimatum that Mr. Trump released on Monday evening and on Tuesday, which Hamas should have released all the remaining hostages by Saturday at noon.
“Either they have them outside on Saturday at 12 or all bets are off,” said Trump.
Hamas accused Israel of having broken the promise of sending hundreds of thousands of tents to Gaza, a statement that three Israeli officials and two mediators said that he was accurate. The Israeli military unit that supervises help of help, however, said that Hamas’ statements are “completely false accusations”.
The fragility of the ceasefire, as well as Trump’s proposal for the forced displacement of the Palestinians, put the Arab leaders in “Reaction mode”, according to Jonathan Panikoff, director of the Safety Initiative of the Middle East of Scowcroft at the Atlantic Council.
“All the leaders of the region are trying to balance the one that consider an increasingly unstable situation,” said Panikoff. “There has always been a conflict for almost a year and a half and it has never completely lined up. But now you have a United States President who has threatened actions that would add the kerosene to a fire already on fire. “
In the last few days Trump has carved out his unlikely proposal to permanently reset most of the Palestinians while the United States would have been delivered to the control of the territory by Israel and therefore redevelop it in a hub for work and tourism. Mr. Trump spoke privately of the notion of the United States who take the control of Gaza for several weeks, according to several people who spoke to him.
Mr. Trump extended the pressure on Egypt and Jordan on the eve of the visit of King Abdullah when he said he could cut aid in Jordan unless he had taken the Palestinians. Once resetted, Trump said, those Palestinians would not have the right to return to Gaza. As a question about how the Palestinians would have forced to leave Gaza, Mr. Trump shook the question off. “They are fine,” he said. “They will be very happy.”
American aid to Jordan, including military aid, are currently frozen in the field of foreign assistance of Mr. Trump all over the world. However, King Abdullah had to face the difficult task of trying to protect over 1.5 billion dollars in foreign aid that Jordan receives from the United States, also trying to have Mr. Trump withdraw for his request for mass removal of the Palestinians.
Mr. Trump seemed to go back his suggestion that would cut aid to Jordan Tuesday, saying: “We are above that”.
The monarchy fears that accepting an influx of about two million refugees can inflame tensions between citizens of Palestinian origin and those who are not, say analysts. More than half of the 12 million subjects of King Abdullah are of Palestinian origin. Jordan is already home to about 700,000 refugees, most of whom Syrians who fled from the civil war of that country.
The Parliament of Jordan, just last week, introduced a bill that would have prohibited the resetting of the Palestinians in the country. King Abdullah could try to convince Mr. Trump that his hope of moving the Palestinians from Gaza would have complicated the wider efforts of his administration to convince Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham agreements of 2020 in Trump, who established formal ties between Israel and four Arab countries.
Rather than initially rejecting Mr. Trump publicly rejecting King Abdullah seemed to try to appease the president saying that Jordan would take 2,000 Palestinian children suffering from cancer and other diseases. Trump happily responded to the declaration, calling him a “beautiful gesture”, even if the analysts of foreign policy said that Jordan had previously reported that he would take sick children from Gaza.
Brian Katulis, an elderly member of the Middle East, said that King Abdullah’s offer drew from a consolidated “playbook” used by Arab leaders when they deal with Mr. Trump.
The Arab leaders, he said: “You know how to appease Trump – and then work with people evenings in his team who have the task of giving meaning to his absurdity”.
Michael Crowley Contributed relationships.