The Trump administration has continued to push his plans this week for what President Donald Trump calls Gaza’s “ownership” and continues to push his plans as long as it threatens to cut aid to Jordan and Egypt. So, we’re gearing up for a potentially controversial meeting with Arab power players this week if they don’t go together.
Jordan’s King Abdullah is scheduled to meet with Trump at the White House on Tuesday, becoming the first Arab leader since he returned to power last month.
Jordan has served as the humanitarian lifeline for Gaza civilians through the Israeli-Hamas conflict and already hosts millions of registered Palestinian refugees.
But Trump’s plan to rebuild Gaza is what he calls war-torn land, seeking to take over the nearly two million Palestinians he says he can remove from Gaza, not just Egypt. I want it to be able to be changed to. Middle East “Under His Watch.”
Trump’s proposal to “clean out” Gaza sparked a sharp wave of backlash from Middle Eastern leaders, including Abdullah.
Abdullah II of Jordan represents Queen Elizabeth II as she attended a sovereign parade at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst held in Camberley, England on August 11, 2017. Masu.
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“The king of Abdullah II has expressed his refusal to attempt to annex and replace the Palestinians, underscoring the need to halt the expansion of the settlement,” the Royal Court of Jordan posted on X on Wednesday. It was stated in a statement. The awakening of last week’s stunning announcement of Trump.
Since then, Abdullah has also been involved in calls and conferences with the United Nations and other countries that have historically supported the creation of the Palestinian homeland. Gaza.
However, it appears that the opposition has done little to stop Trump. In a clip from a weekend interview with Fox News released Monday, Trump said under his plan that Palestinians have no right to return to the land after the reconstruction is complete, as they have been removed from Gaza. I stated.
“No, they didn’t, because they have much better housing. “I’m talking about creating a permanent place for them.”
President Donald Trump will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House Oval Office on February 4, 2025.
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The president has also suggested that he will dispel opposition from Jordan and Egypt, bringing in large numbers of Palestinians and putting pressure on the government to board.
“If they don’t agree, I’ll probably withhold help,” he told reporters Monday night.
Trump is also sending his top diplomat, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to the Middle East this weekend.
Rubio will visit Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. He also met with Egyptian Foreign Minister at the State Department on Monday. However, it is unclear whether he is on the same page as the president.
While on tour through Central America last week, Rubio was asked multiple times whether Palestinians would be allowed to return to Gaza after reconstruction under Trump’s plans. In each case, the secretary did not fully answer the question, but Gazan said he had to live somewhere else “tentatively.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatti on February 10, 2025, on the photo opportunity ahead of a meeting in the US State Department building in Washington.
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Asked how Rubio would resolve similar concerns raised by Arab leaders during a tour through the Middle East, a senior State Department official said, “I don’t know what his plan is. I’m a mind leader.” Not,” he replied.
In a radio interview that aired Monday, the secretary said he was the one who asked questions to Middle Eastern officials.
“The only person who got up and said I’d help with that is Donald Trump. All the other leaders, they need to step up. If they have a better idea, now Now is the time, Rubio said.
However, the foreign ministers from the Rubio countries wrote to him earlier this month, detailing their willingness to work with the Trump administration to cooperate with the two states’ solutions.
Some analysts have characterized Trump’s proposal for Gaza as a negotiation ploy. If so, Ahmed Abdo, assistant fellow of the Middle East and North Africa programmes at Chatham House, claims it is already doing more harm than good.
“If Trump’s eye-opening intervention is a negotiation tactic, those looking for logic in their proposal claims have already failed. The fragile peace process and our reputation have been inflicted on great damage. ” Abdu said.
Others like Thomas S. Warwick — non-resident senior fellows and former Homeland Security officials of the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative — see some value in Trump’s proposal. It’s there.
“No one predicted that Trump would push the US to be more involved in what should be seen as a month in a month,” Warwick said.
But Warwick said Trump’s strategy “needs to be dialed to something viable,” and that when he meets Abdullah, he is likely to face one tall hurdle. .
“The US toolbox has absolutely no tools to convince leaders in Egypt or Jordan to change their minds on this point,” he said. “Trump’s advisors know this, but they’ll probably hear this directly from Abdullah, King of Jordan.”
