Trump to host Jordan's king after threatening to withhold aid if country rejects his Gaza plan
Jordan government is treading political tightrope
Lucy Williamson
Middle East correspondent, reporting from JordanA small country surrounded by conflicts and saturated with refugees, Jordan is a superpower of stability in a volatile region now facing a conflict of its own with its US ally.
Thousands protested here last week against US President Donald Trump's demand that Gaza's population relocate to Jordan, a plan seen as helping Israel's far right nationalists take over Palestinian land.
Jordan is already home to more than two million Palestinian refugees. Some families in camps here came from Gaza seeking temporary shelter after the 1967 Arab Israeli war. Generations later, they're still here.
So right now Jordan's government is treading a tightrope between its political ties to Israel and the US and its people's ties to the Palestinians.
If Gazans come we will die, Jordanian labourer says
Maher Azazi
Maher Azazi, 60, was moved from Jabalia in the Gaza Strip to Gaza camp, in Jordan, as a toddler - 57 years later he is still living at the camp set up as an "emergency" settlement for Palestinians in 1968.
Some of the fiercest opponents of moving Gazans to Jordan are the Gazans who moved here before, the BBC's Lucy Williamson writes.
Despite the devastation there, Azazi says Gazans today have learned the lessons of previous generations and most "would rather jump into the sea than leave".
"Donald Trump is an arrogant narcissist," he tells the BBC. "He has a mentality from the Middle Ages, the mentality of a tradesman."
We also heard from Hassan, a Jordanian labourer who says Jordan used to thrive, but after the wars in Syria, and now Gaza, "things got worse... because we're a country that helps and takes people in".
"I have no money, no food," he says. "If Gazans come, we will die."
Trump proposal wrenches at Jordan's weakened fault lines
Tom Bateman
State department correspondentPresident Trump has threatened to withhold economic aid from Jordan if it, along with Egypt, won’t accept Palestinians from Gaza.
Jordan has rejected the idea as a fundamental breach of international law.
The country is making it clear - behind the scenes - it views the Trump proposal as posing an existential threat to Jordan itself.
The idea of hosting expelled Palestinians wrenches at the kingdom’s already weakened fault lines. Its population includes millions descended from Palestinian refugees forced from the land that became Israel in 1948, alongside those whose roots lie firmly east of the River Jordan.
The country has also absorbed waves of refugees from Syria.
That in a state reliant on US economic assistance means King Abdullah’s message to Trump is likely to be blunt: his Gaza transfer plan could unleash chaos in Jordan and undermine decades of relative stability with its neighbour Israel.
Jordan's king meets US security adviser
X/RHCJOJordan's King Abdullah has been meeting with some of President Donald Trump's advisers ahead of the pair's scheduled discussion later.
King Abdullah sat down with National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. His office posted a picture of the royal smiling, as Waltz talks to him.
He is due to meet President Trump at 11:30 ET (16:30 GMT).
Trump has set stage for a showdown between US and Jordan
Lucy Williamson
Middle East correspondent, reporting from JordanWhen King Abdullah of Jordan sits down with President Trump at the White House today, it won’t only be Gaza’s future on his mind, but Jordan’s too.
Trump’s apparent determination to relocate Gaza’s population to Jordan has set the stage for a showdown between the US and a key Middle East ally.
King Abdullah has insisted there is no way Jordan will agree to the plan.
Trump has signalled there will be consequences for refusing, saying that he would consider withholding aid.
Jordan receives regular payments of at least $1.45bn each year in military and economic aid from the US.
Along with Israel and Egypt, it’s one of the top recipients of US aid in the Middle East, but because its economy is much smaller, the aid plays a much bigger role here, making up around 1% of the country’s GDP.
Trump has already suspended aid to Jordan, as part of a wider review into US global funding. The consequences of losing US aid are likely to be sharp in a country where a quarter of the population live in poverty, and almost half its young people are unemployed.
But senior political figures say the consequences of bowing to Trump’s pressure could be even more serious. The country is home to millions of refugees, many with strong ties to the Palestinians, and while many native Jordanians have strong sympathy with the Palestinian people, there is also growing frustration at the number of refugees in Jordan, and the lack of jobs.
The government’s security ties to the US, and its security co-operation with Israel, have sometimes left it treading a tightrope between its strategic relationships and its own people.
King Abdullah faces a choice: refuse the demands of an unpredictable superpower ally, or force open fault-lines in his own country that could trigger an existential crisis.
Jordan is at boiling point as one of the largest refugee-hosting countries, king says
ReutersTrump is set to meet Jordan's King Abdullah later today, here they are at a previous meeting in 2018
Jordan already houses more than 2.39 million Palestinian refugees, the UN Refugee Agency says.
The organisation describes Jordan as "one of the world's largest refugee-hosting countries per capita".
Many Iraqis and Syrians also fled to Jordan during the wars in the 2000s and 2010s.
Jordan's King Abdullah says his country is at "boiling point".
A food bank near the mosque in central Amman, the country's capital, tells the BBC it hands out 1,000 meals a day.
Jordan is one of the longest standing friends the West has in the region.
ReplyDeleteDonald Fuck threatening and bullying Jordan is a very bad strategy.
Then again, Donald Fuck is all about transactions.
Strategy is not what he has any thought about.