President Trump said Monday that he could stop aid to Jordan and Egypt if he refused a request to take most Palestinians from Gaza forever. Territories to redevelop it.
“If they don't agree, I'll probably withhold help,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office a day before his meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah II.
Jordan and Egypt rejected the proposal that Palestinians would be moved to their own country.
Trump has doubled the idea of forcing the displacement of around 2 million Palestinians. This is a move that some scholars say is equivalent to war crimes and ethnic cleansing. In an interview with Fox News broadcast on Monday, Trump said he doesn't imagine Palestinians leaving Gaza to give way to redevelopment plans.
In an interview, he asked if Palestinians would eventually “have the right to return” to Gaza after his proposed construction project was completed, the president said, “No, they wouldn't.”
As for where they might go, he said: “I think I can do business with Jordan. I think I can do business with Egypt.”
Trump's proposals have sent shockwaves throughout the Middle East, and are sure to control meetings with Jordanian leaders during particularly unstable times in the region.
The president said from the White House that if Hamas does not release all remaining Israeli hostages by noon on Saturday, the ceasefire agreement with Israel would need to be cancelled.
“All hell is going to break out,” Trump said.
Trump's comments about the relocation plan raised pressure on King Abdullah, who is likely to be engulfed in his own domestic crisis if Palestinians were forced into Jordan. It is estimated that more than half of Jordan's population is Palestinian. The country is already unstable due to tensions between Palestinian citizens and those who are not, analysts say.
“What Trump has done is put the future of the Kingdom of Jordan on the line,” said Halil Jashan, executive director of the Arab Centre DC in Washington, DC. . ”
King Abdullah was expected to meet Stephen Witkov, Trump's envoy to the Middle East, on Monday, who took a rare trip to Gaza last month.
The President is willing to put pressure on major allies in the region, and his intention to retreat from his fast-hardened ideas about our ownership of war-torn territory and the evacuation of Palestinians. It shows that there is very little.
In an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier, Trump provided the most extensive commentary on how to move Gaza's population to Jordan, Egypt and other countries in the region.
“We're building a safe community a little away from where all of this danger is,” he said. “In the meantime I'll own this. Think of it as a future property development. It will be beautiful land.”
He said Palestinians “have much better housing” than Gaza.
“I'm talking about creating a permanent place for them,” Trump said.
