Washington — President Trump hosted Jordan’s King Abdullah II on the White Home on Tuesday and renewed his strategies that Gaza might be emptied of residents, managed by the U.S. and redeveloped as a vacationer space — a plan that might possible solely work if the Arab nation agrees to just accept extra refugees.
The pair met within the Oval Workplace, the place Mr. Trump recommended he would not withhold U.S. assist to Jordan, Egypt or different Arab nations, if they do not comply with dramatically enhance the variety of individuals from Gaza they soak up.
“I haven’t got to threaten that. I do consider we’re above that,” Mr. Trump mentioned. That contradicted his earlier suggestion that holding again assist was a risk.
Abdullah was requested repeatedly about Mr. Trump’s audacious plan to remake the Center East, however did not make substantive feedback on it nor the concept that his nation may settle for giant numbers of recent refugees from Gaza.
Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg through Getty Photographs
The president additionally repeated strategies that the U.S. may come to regulate Gaza, however he mentioned that it would not require committing funds and would come to fruition. He additionally mentioned that might be attainable “beneath the U.S. authority,” with out elaborating what that truly was.
“We’re not going to purchase something. We’ll have it,” Mr. Trump mentioned of U.S. management in Gaza. He recommended that the redeveloped space may have new accommodations, workplace buildings and homes and “and we’ll make it thrilling.”
“I can let you know about actual property. They’ll be in love with it,” Mr. Trump, who constructed a New York actual property empire that catapulted him to fame, mentioned of Gaza’s residents, whereas additionally insisting that he personally wouldn’t be concerned in growth.
Moreover, Mr. Trump used the assembly to resume his strategies {that a} tenuous ceasefire between Hamas and Israel might be canceled if Hamas would not launch all the remaining hostages it’s holding by noon on Saturday.
“I do not suppose they will make the deadline, personally,” Mr. Trump mentioned of Hamas. “They wish to play robust man. We’ll see how robust they’re.”
The king’s go to is occurring at a dangerous second for the ongoing ceasefire in Gaza. Hamas is accusing Israel of violating the truce and mentioned it’s pausing future releases of hostages captured in its Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist assault.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly proposed the U.S. take management of Gaza and switch it into “the Riviera of the Center East,” with Palestinians within the war-torn territory pushed into neighboring nations with no proper of return.
His Tuesday feedback contradicted his Monday strategies that, if essential, he would withhold U.S. funding from Jordan and Egypt — longtime U.S. allies and among the many high recipients of its international assist — as a way of persuading them to just accept further Palestinians from Gaza.
Jordan is dwelling to greater than 2 million Palestinians and, together with different Arab states, has flatly rejected Mr. Trump’s plan to relocate civilians from Gaza. Jordan’s international minister, Ayman Safadi, mentioned final week that his nation’s opposition to Mr. Trump’s concept was “agency and unwavering.”
Apart from issues about jeopardizing the long-held objectives of a two-state answer to the Israel-Palestinian battle, Egypt and Jordan have privately raised safety issues about welcoming giant numbers of further refugees into their international locations even briefly.
The king can be assembly with high Trump administration officers throughout his go to, together with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, nationwide safety adviser Mike Waltz, Center East envoy Steve Witkoff and Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth, in addition to a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Capitol Hill. He’s the third international chief to carry an in-person assembly with Mr. Trump since his Jan. 20 inauguration.
The president introduced his concepts for resettling Palestinians from Gaza and taking possession of the territory for the U.S. throughout a press convention final week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He initially did not rule out deploying U.S. troops to assist safe Gaza however on the identical time insisted no U.S. funds would go to pay for the reconstruction of the territory, elevating elementary questions in regards to the nature of his plan.
After Mr. Trump’s preliminary feedback, Rubio and White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted that Trump solely wished Palestinians relocated from Gaza “briefly” and sought an “interim” interval to permit for particles elimination, the disposal of unexploded ordnance and reconstruction.
However requested in an interview with Fox Information’ Bret Baier that aired Monday if Palestinians in Gaza would have a proper to return to the territory beneath his plan, he replied, “No, they would not.”
