Jordan’s King Abdullah II has accepted an invitation to visit the White House and meet US President Donald Trump later this month, the Jordanian royal palace said on Sunday.
It will be the their first in-person meeting since Trump repeatedly floated the idea to “clean out” the Gaza Strip and resettle Gazans elsewhere, proposing Egypt and Jordan. Both states have flatly rejected any such proposal, as have others in the region, despite Trump’s insisting, “They will do it.”
Trump said last week he had spoken with Abdullah, and had told the king, “I’d love you to take on more because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now and it’s a mess, it’s a real mess. I’d like him to take people.”
When asked if this was a temporary or long-term suggestion, Trump said: “Could be either.”
“You’re talking about probably a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing. You know, over the centuries it’s had many, many conflicts, that site. And I don’t know, something has to happen,” Trump said, in remarks to reporters on Air Force One.
During meetings with European officials in Brussels on Wednesday, King Abdullah reiterated “Jordan’s unwavering opinion on the necessity of establishing Palestinians on their land and gaining their legitimate rights, in accordance with the two-state solution.”
Displaced Palestinians walk on a road in central Gaza to return to their homes in the northern Gaza Strip, amid the implementation of the Israel-Hamas hostage-ceasefire deal, January 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi similarly said on Monday that “any discussion on an alternate homeland [for the Palestinians]… is rejected.”
On Saturday, top diplomats from Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar rejected any forcible displacement of Palestinians during a meeting in Cairo.
“We affirm our rejection of [any attempts] to compromise Palestinians’ unalienable rights, whether through settlement activities, or evictions or annex of land or through vacating the land from its owners… in any form or under any circumstances or justifications,” the countries said in a joint statement.
Trump on Saturday spoke with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi for the first time since making the controversial remarks.
Neither of the countries’ read-outs of the phone call made any mention of the matter, speaking only about the ceasefire-hostage release deal between Israel and the Hamas terror group, and the general goal of peace in the region.
Hamas: Jordan ‘sought deportation’ of Ahlam al-Tamimi
Separately, Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV reported on Sunday that Jordan had “sought the deportation” of infamous Palestinian terrorist Ahlam al-Tamimi. The short message on Telegram, citing “sources,” did not include any further information.
Ahlam al-Tamimi, during an interview in her home in Amman, Jordan, March 21, 2017. (AP Photo/Omar Akour)
Advocates for terror victims’ rights have long sought Tamimi’s extradition from Jordan to the United States for her role in the murder of two US citizens in the 2001 attack on the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem, which killed 16 Israeli civilians, including seven children and a pregnant woman.
She has been living in Jordan since her release from Israeli prison in 2011, when she was among the 1,027 prisoners released in exchange for the release by Hamas of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
In 2022, Interpol dropped a warrant for Tamimi’s arrest, but the US still offers a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to her arrest or conviction.
Jacob Magid and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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