WASHINGTON — Jordan’s King Abdullah II, lengthy one of many United States’ closest allies, visited the White Home on Tuesday to inform President Trump why a mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza to Jordan just isn’t solely unlawful, but additionally might spell catastrophe for the Hashemite kingdom.
Seated alongside Trump within the White Home, Abdullah stated it’s “our collective accountability within the Center East to proceed to work with you, to help you to realize” the targets of “stability, peace and prosperity to all of us within the area.”
However the king wouldn’t handle probably the most beautiful parts of Trump’s newest proposal for the Gaza Strip, introduced days earlier than Abdullah’s arrival, when Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump introduced final week that the U.S. would seize the Gaza Strip and oversee the pressured displacement of almost 2 million Palestinians.
Trump stated they need to be relocated in Jordan and Egypt, an thought roundly rejected by these two nations, Palestinians and the worldwide group, which might regard such an motion as ethnic cleaning. On Tuesday, Abdullah would say solely that Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia would provide you with “a plan” to current to Washington.
The difficulty of Palestinian refugees cuts deeply in Jordan. About 750,000 Palestinians had been expelled — a few of whom fled to Jordan — throughout what Arabs discuss with because the 1948 Nakba, or “disaster,” when Israel was created. An extra 300,000 refugees streamed into the dominion after the 1967 Center East Conflict, together with these from Gaza.
Palestinian refugees now quantity almost 2.4 million, in keeping with the United Nations.
Most — however not all — had been granted citizenship in Jordan. Many preserve robust ties to their Palestinian origins and care deeply about what occurs within the West Financial institution and Gaza.
The Hashemite monarchy has had an uneasy relationship with Palestinian activism. In 1970, King Hussein — Abdullah’s father — crushed Palestinian factions working within the nation, going as far as to shell refugee camps within the capital and the nation’s north. He additionally repeatedly clashed with the Palestine Liberation Group over stewardship of Palestinian affairs.
Present and former Jordanian leaders say the inflow of a brand new wave of Palestinians would pose an existential menace to the nation and destabilize the Hashemite dynasty represented by Abdullah and his ancestors.
Showing considerably nervous as he sat subsequent to Trump, Abdullah dodged questions on Trump’s plan, saying he and a gaggle of Arab leaders led by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — would current a plan to Trump at a later date.
“Whereas it’s clear the king didn’t need to seem confrontational in public, on the identical time he couldn’t conform to what the president was proposing, which quantities to ethnic cleaning of two million individuals,” Marwan Muasher, a former Jordanian international minister, informed The Occasions. “I feel the king’s suggestion, to attend till there’s a unified Arab place, is properly positioned, as a result of it is going to present that there’s very robust opposition to President Trump’s plans.”
Later Abdullah launched a sequence of social media posts that elaborated his place — and his opposition to Trump.
“I reiterated Jordan’s steadfast place towards the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Financial institution. That is the unified Arab place,” he wrote on X. “Rebuilding Gaza with out displacing the Palestinians and addressing the dire humanitarian state of affairs needs to be the precedence for all.”
Abdullah added: “Reaching simply peace on the premise of the two-state answer is the way in which to make sure regional stability. This requires U.S. management.”
He went on to reward Trump for serving to to safe the Gaza cease-fire.
“It’s clear crucial situation for the king now could be to take care of a strategic relationship with this present U.S. administration — that’s why you didn’t hear outright rejections,” stated Amer Sabaileh, a Jordan-based analyst.
The problem for Abdullah, he stated, is to persuade Trump of Jordan’s significance for stability within the area and to not jeopardize the dominion’s standing.
The conferences in Washington got here towards the backdrop of occasions in Israel, the place Netanyahu threatened to finish the newest cease-fire in Gaza and resume “intense preventing” there except Israeli hostages had been freed Saturday. He echoed, nearly phrase for phrase, a menace by Trump that “all hell goes to interrupt out” if remaining hostages usually are not freed.
Over the weekend, the militant group Hamas threatened to postpone indefinitely the subsequent handover, scheduled Saturday, of three Israeli hostages beneath the phrases of the truce.
“If Hamas doesn’t return our hostages by Saturday midday, the cease-fire will finish, and the [Israel Defense Forces] will resume intense preventing till the ultimate defeat of Hamas,” Netanyahu stated after a gathering of his safety Cupboard, throughout which he instructed the Israeli army to mass forces anew in Gaza.
By Israeli media rely, 76 Israelis stay in Gaza, almost half of them considered useless.
Bulos reported from Amman, Jordan. Occasions employees author Laura King in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.
