U.S. President Donald Trump (right) meets with Jordanian King Abdullah II during a meeting at the White House in Washington on Feb. 11.Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
Jordanian King Abdullah II faced a tough choice on Tuesday when meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House: either risk billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid that Amman receives every year or anger millions of Palestinian Jordanians by backing Trump’s Gaza displacement plan.
Last week, Trump proposed expelling all of Gaza’s 2.1 million people to neighboring countries, such as Jordan and Egypt, as part of a “real estate development” plan that would ultimately end in U.S. “ownership” of Gaza. Amman and Cairo quickly rejected the idea, but Trump’s insistence on pursuing the plan has deeply alarmed regional leaders.
Trump suggested on Monday that he would consider slashing funding to Jordan and Egypt if they refused to take in Gaza’s displaced population. “If they don’t agree, I would conceivably withhold aid,” he said. Jordan receives more than $1.5 billion in foreign aid from Washington each year, though those funds are currently frozen as part of Trump’s halt on nearly all foreign assistance. (U.S. military aid to Egypt was exempted from the freeze.)
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced on Tuesday that he would postpone his planned visit to Washington next week over Trump’s comments.
During his meeting with Trump, Abdullah “reiterated Jordan’s steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank,” which he described as “the unified Arab position,” according to posts that the king wrote on social media afterward. Beyond that, though, he largely declined to elaborate on his views of Trump’s proposal, at least publicly, saying he would refrain from doing so until Egypt had a chance to weigh in.
However, Abdullah did offer one concession that seemed to please Trump, telling him that Jordan would take in 2,000 Palestinian children from Gaza who are very ill right away—an offer Trump called a “really beautiful gesture.”
Abdullah has maintained close ties with the United States. Jordan allows U.S. troops to access its military bases, and Amman has received millions of dollars from the CIA to support its intelligence infrastructure.
Yet more than half of Jordan’s population is of Palestinian descent, and Middle East experts say Abdullah’s rule depends on their support. “King Abdullah cannot go along with” Trump’s Gaza proposal, said Paul Salem, the vice president for international engagement at the Middle East Institute. “He cannot survive the idea that he’s colluding on the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. It’s existential for him and his government.”
Abdullah’s talk with Trump comes as the cease-fire in Gaza risks unraveling. On Monday, Hamas accused Israel of violating the terms of the deal and said it would indefinitely suspend the release of all remaining hostages until Israeli forces respect the truce. The militant group also condemned Trump’s displacement plan. “We are open to ideas regarding a new form of Palestinian government and administration of Gaza but not to the deportation,” Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qasem said.
Hours later, Trump issued an ultimatum. If all hostages are not released by noon on Saturday, he said, then Israel should cancel the truce deal and “all hell is going to break out.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Trump’s vow on Tuesday, saying, “The military will return to intense fighting until Hamas is finally defeated.”
But Hamas has denounced the warning. “Trump must remember there is an agreement that must be respected by both parties, and this is the only way to bring back the prisoners,” senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters. “The language of threats has no value and only complicates matters.”