Trump claims the US has authority to 'take' Gaza

Washington: King Abdullah II of Jordan on Tuesday rebuffed President Donald Trump's proposal for his country to absorb Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, saying that he remains opposed to a plan Trump has laid out to clear the territory so the United States can seize control of it.

During a "constructive" meeting with the US president at the White House, King Abdullah said he "reiterated Jordan's steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank."

"This is the unified Arab position," he stated in a post on social media after the meeting. "Rebuilding Gaza without displacing the Palestinians and addressing the dire humanitarian situation should be the priority for all."

His statement came hours after Trump insisted the United States had the authority to "take" Gaza, part of an effort to pressure the leader of Jordan and other Arab nations to embrace the forced removal, which has drawn widespread condemnation.

"We will have Gaza," said Trump, as he sat next to Abdullah and Crown Prince Hussein of Jordan. "It's a war-torn area. We're going to take it. We're going to hold it. We're going to cherish it."

Abdullah largely demurred when asked by reporters about Trump's proposal, describing the president as a force for peace in the region and saying Jordan was prepared to assist sick Palestinian children.

But according to his statement, Abdullah was more direct with Trump in private.

"Achieving just peace on the basis of the two-state solution is the way to ensure regional stability," King Abdullah said in the post. "This requires US leadership."

The meeting came a week after Trump declared that he wanted the U.S. to seize control of Gaza and wanted Jordan and Egypt to resettle the roughly 2 million Palestinians who call it home. Both Jordan and Egypt rejected the idea when Trump raised it last week at a news conference with Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

The meeting with King Abdullah amounted to not only a pivotal moment for a key ally in the Middle East but also more broadly for the future of Gaza.

The talks came as the ceasefire agreement in the war in the Gaza Strip appeared to be at risk of breaking. Netanyahu warned Hamas on Tuesday that if hostages were not released by noon Saturday, then Israeli troops would resume "intense fighting." His statement echoed an ultimatum Trump issued Monday evening and again Tuesday that Hamas would need to release all remaining hostages by Saturday at midday.

"They either have them out by Saturday at 12 o'clock, or all bets are off," Trump said.

Hamas has accused Israel of breaking a promise to send hundreds of thousands of tents into Gaza, a claim that three Israeli officials and two mediators said was accurate. The Israeli military unit that oversees aid deliveries, however, has said that Hamas' claims are "completely false accusations."

The fragility of the ceasefire, as well as Trump's proposal for the forced displacement of Palestinians, have put Arab leaders in "reaction mode," according to Jonathan Panikoff, director of the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council.

"All of the region's leaders are trying to balance what they view as an increasingly unstable situation," Panikoff said. "There's always been conflict now for almost a year and a half, and it has not ever fully subsided. But now you have a US president who has threatened actions that would add kerosene to an already burning fire."

Trump in recent days has dug in on his improbable proposal to permanently resettle most Palestinians while the United States would be handed control of the territory by Israel and then redevelop it into a hub for jobs and tourism. Trump has privately been talking about the notion of the United States taking control of Gaza for several weeks, according to multiple people who have spoken with him.

Trump ramped up pressure on Egypt and Jordan on the eve of King Abdullah's visit when he said he could cut aid to Jordan unless it took in Palestinians. Once resettled, Trump has said those Palestinians would not have the right to return to Gaza under his plan to redevelop the territory for people from all over the world. Asked how he would force Palestinians to leave Gaza, Trump shrugged off the question. "They're going to be great," he said. "They're going to be very happy."

U.S. aid to Jordan, including military aid, is currently frozen as part of Trump's halt to foreign assistance across the globe. Still, King Abdullah faced the difficult task of trying to protect the more than $1.5 billion in foreign aid Jordan receives from the United States while also trying to get Trump to back off his demands for the mass removal of Palestinians.

Trump appeared to walk back his suggestion that he would cut aid to Jordan on Tuesday, saying, "We're above that."

The monarchy is concerned that accepting an influx of another roughly 2 million refugees could inflame tensions between citizens of Palestinian descent and those who are not, analysts say. More than half of King Abdullah's 12 million subjects are of Palestinian descent. Jordan is already home to approximately 700,000 refugees, most of them Syrians who fled from that country's civil war.

Jordan's parliament just last week introduced a bill that would ban the resettlement of Palestinians in the country. King Abdullah could try to convince Trump that his hope to move Palestinians out of Gaza would complicate his administration's broader efforts to get Saudi Arabia to join Trump's 2020 Abraham Accords, which established formal ties between Israel and four Arab countries.

Rather than initially push back publicly on Trump, King Abdullah appeared to try and placate the president by saying Jordan would take in 2,000 Palestinian children suffering cancer and other illnesses. Trump responded gleefully to the statement, calling it a "beautiful gesture," even though foreign policy analysts said Jordan previously signaled it would take in sick children from Gaza.

Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, said that King Abdullah's offer drew from a well-established "playbook" used by Arab leaders when they deal with Trump.

Arab leaders, he said, "know how to placate Trump -- and then work with the serious people on his team who have the job of making sense of his nonsense."