Jordan walks slightly with Trump, hoping to avoid the mass movement of Palestinians – Politico

King Abdullah II also joined other Arab leaders on March 4 to support an Egyptian plan to spend $ 53 billion (49.6 billion euros) to rebuild Gaza by 2030 and set up a new transitional government to replace Hamas.

Three weeks after the White House meeting, the first helicopters and ambulances left Gaza to cross Israel and the West Bank in Jordan after being delayed a few days in the middle of a tenuous ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Children and their escorts will remain for the duration of their treatment before being sent home, according to the Jordanian authorities.

Avoid greater danger

Since his entry into office in January, the American president has repeatedly launched a plan, supported by Israeli law, to move millions of Palestinians from Gaza to Jordan and Egypt, in violation of international law. The two countries fear that the initiative can destabilize them internally.

Jordan is particularly high alert. The authorities fear that any new transfer of Palestinians on their territory, where more than half of the population is Palestinian or of Palestinian origin, would arouse serious troubles. They fear that this would not only upset the delicate demographic balance of the country, but also the end of a two -state solution, fueling anger across the country. Jordan also considers the illegal displacement of the population as a red line in its peace treaty with Israel.

“The strategy that Jordan follows does not publicly face Trump in any way whatsoever, because this will not achieve results, but to explain and to the administration the dangers of any mass transfer of Palestinians from Gaza and Jordan or Egypt,” said Marwan Muasher, Jordan’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs and now the Vice-President of Washington Endowment for the withdrawal of peace in Washington.

Jordan also has many “friends” through American institutions “on which it relies, at least to contain (these) unexpected and unpredictable movements of a bull in a store in China,” said Oraib Al Rantawi, director general of the Al Quds political studies center.