President Trump insisted Tuesday that the United States had the authority to “take” Gaza and that other countries in the region would absorb the Palestinians who currently live there, speaking as he sat beside Jordan’s king in the Oval Office.
“We will have Gaza,” Mr. Trump said. “It’s a war-torn area. We’re going to take it. We’re going to hold it. We’re going to cherish it.”
The remarks — made at an impromptu gaggle with reporters at the start of the bilateral meeting between the two leaders — were a new form of pressure on King Abdullah II. The king sought to praise Mr. Trump as a force for peace in the region while avoiding comment on a barely formed proposal that the president has repeatedly floated in the past week.
Their meeting, along with Crown Prince Hussein of Jordan, came a week after Mr. Trump declared that he wanted the U.S. to seize control of Gaza and wanted Jordan and Egypt to resettle the roughly two million Palestinians who would be displaced.
Both Jordan and Egypt rejected the idea when Mr. Trump raised it last week at a news conference with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. But on Tuesday, King Abdullah largely demurred when asked by reporters about the prospect of forcibly displacing Gazans to allow the United States to take over the territory.
Rather than push back on Mr. Trump’s proposal, King Abdullah said the two nations should consult with other Arab nations, including Egypt.
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