US President Donald Trump welcoming Jordan's King Abdullah II (R) and his eldest son, Crown Prince Hussein (L),upon their arrival for a meeting at the White House on Tuesday — AFP NEW YORK, Feb 12 (BBC/Reuters/AFP): King Abdullah of Jordan has rejected Donald Trump's plan to resettle Palestinians in the kingdom.
Following a meeting with Trump at the White House on Tuesday, Abdullah wrote on X that Jordan remained "steadfast" against "the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This is the unified Arab position."
It was the first meeting between the pair since Trump announced his proposal to take over Gaza and move its population of two million Palestinians to other countries in the region, including Jordan.
Earlier this week, Trump suggested he could withhold aid to Jordan and Egypt unless they agreed to take in those Palestinians from Gaza.
Jordan, a key US ally in the Middle East, is already home to millions of Palestinians.
While the King volunteered to accept up to 2,000 Palestinian children from Gaza in need of medical care, he stressed that rebuilding Gaza and addressing its humanitarian crisis should take precedence over relocation efforts.
But speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, with King Abdullah seated to his right, Trump signalled he would not shift on his idea which triggered global condemnation when he unveiled it last week.
"We're going to take it. We're going to hold it. We're going to cherish it," he said of Gaza. Trump claimed that "a lot of jobs" would be created across the region if a US takeover of the devastated territory were to happen.
Moving Palestinians 'unacceptable
for Arab world': Arab League chief
Arab League secretary-general Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Wednesday rejected any displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and West Bank, calling it "unacceptable" for the region.
"The focus today is on Gaza today and tomorrow it will shift to the West Bank with the objective of emptying Palestine of its historical inhabitants," he said at the World Governments Summit in Dubai.
"It's unacceptable for the Arab world, which has fought this idea for 100 years." Aboul Gheit was commenting on US President Donald Trump's plan to move Palestinians out of Gaza which has been widely condemned in the Arab world.
Israel will end Gaza truce if hostages
not returned Saturday: Netanyahu
US President Donald Trump, a close ally of Israel, says in response that Hamas should release all the hostages Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that if Hamas did not release Israeli hostages by noon on Saturday a fragile ceasefire in Gaza would end.
"In light of Hamas' announcement of its decision to violate the agreement and not release our hostages, last night I ordered the IDF to gather forces inside and around the Gaza Strip," Netanyahu said, speaking after a meeting of his security cabinet.
"This operation is being carried out at this time. It will be completed in the very near future," he said in a statement.
Hamas has begun releasing some hostages gradually under the first phase of a ceasefire reached last month, but said on Monday it would not free any more until further notice, accusing Israel of violating the terms with several deadly shootings as well as hold-ups of some aid deliveries in Gaza.
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