'Will cut off aid': Trump's warning to Jordan, Egypt if they don't take in Palestinians

Trump is scheduled to meet Jordan's King Abdullah

President Donald Trump said he could cut aid to Jordan and Egypt if they refused his demand to permanently take in most Palestinians from Gaza, according to The New York Times.

The move may increase the pressure on key allies in the region to back Trump’s proposal to relocate the entire population of the territory to redevelop it. Jordan and Egypt, both major recipients of U.S. military and economic aid, have rejected any suggestion that Palestinians be relocated to their countries.

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 cease-fire agreement with Israel should be canceled.

He said he wanted the hostages released en masse, instead of a few at a time. "We want 'em all back."

Trump is scheduled to meet Jordan's King Abdullah on Tuesday. “If they don’t agree, I would conceivably withhold aid,” Trump told reporters in response to a question a day before a meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan.

His 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, according to the NYT report.

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.

“What Mr. Trump has done is put the future of the Kingdom of Jordan on the line,” said Khalil Jahshan, the executive director of the Arab Center Washington D.C. “The strongest political movement in Jordan does not accept the idea that Jordan is Palestine.”

Before meeting with Mr. Trump at the White House, King Abdullah was scheduled to meet with Steven Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s envoy to the Middle East. He was also scheduled to meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Mike Waltz, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser.

That the president is willing to apply pressure to key allies in the region also indicates that he has little intention of backing away from his fast-hardening ideas about U.S. ownership of the war-torn territory and the displacement of Palestinians.

In the interview with Bret Baier of Fox News, Mr. Trump provided his most extensive comments so far on how he envisions moving the population of Gaza to Jordan, Egypt and other nations in the region.

“We’ll build safe communities a little bit away from where they are where all of this danger is,” he said. “In the meantime, I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land.”

Once moved out, he said, Palestinians “would have much better housing” than they have in Gaza and would not need to return.

“I’m talking about building a permanent place for them,” Trump said.

Trump’s proposal was not vetted by his top advisers before he unveiled it last week, and some White House officials had sought to soften it, insisting that he had not committed to using the US troops to clear the territory and that any relocation of Palestinians would be temporary.