President Donald Trump said Monday that he could cut aid to Jordan and Egypt if they refused his demand to permanently take in most Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, substantially increasing the pressure on key allies in the region to back his audacious proposal to relocate the entire population of the territory in order to redevelop it.
The president also said from the White House that if Hamas did not release all the remaining Israeli hostages by “12 o’clock on Saturday,” the ceasefire agreement with Israel should be canceled.
“All hell is going to break out,” Trump said to reporters in the Oval Office, while acknowledging that the choice over ending the ceasefire ultimately fell to Israel.
Jordan and Egypt, both major recipients of U.S. military and economic aid, have rejected any suggestion that Palestinians be relocated to their countries. But Trump said Monday that the assistance could be in jeopardy.
“If they don’t agree, I would conceivably withhold aid,” he told reporters in response to a question a day before a meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan.
Trump expanded on the idea of forced displacement of roughly 2 million Palestinians, a move that some scholars have said would amount to a war crime and ethnic cleansing. In an interview with Fox News broadcast Monday, Trump said he did not envision Palestinians who left Gaza to make way for the redevelopment plan ever returning.
Asked in the interview whether the Palestinians would eventually “have the right to return” to Gaza after his proposed construction projects had been completed, the president said, “No, they wouldn’t.”
As for where they might go, he said: “I think I could make a deal with Jordan. I think I could make a deal with Egypt.”
Trump’s proposal has sent shock waves throughout the Middle East and is sure to dominate the meeting with the Jordanian leader during an especially volatile time in the region.
Trump’s remarks about the relocation plan have turned up the pressure on King Abdullah, who would likely be engulfed in his own domestic crisis if Palestinians were forced into Jordan. More than half of Jordan’s population is estimated to be Palestinian; the nation is already unsettled by tensions between citizens of Palestinian descent and those who are not, analysts say.
The New York Times Services
