{"id":236401,"date":"2025-02-11T11:02:04","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T11:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/11\/jordans-king-faces-a-bind-as-he-meets-with-trump\/"},"modified":"2025-02-11T11:02:05","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T11:02:05","slug":"jordans-king-faces-a-bind-as-he-meets-with-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/11\/jordans-king-faces-a-bind-as-he-meets-with-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Jordan\u2019s King Faces a Bind as He Meets With Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/11\/multimedia\/11dc-trump-jordan-topart-chlj\/11dc-trump-jordan-topart-chlj-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Jordan\u2019s King Faces a Bind as He Meets With Trump\" title=\"Jordan\u2019s King Faces a Bind as He Meets With Trump\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In July 2021, the first time that King Abdullah II of Jordan met with President Joseph R. Biden Jr., he was greeted warmly as a reliable American partner whose country is a bulwark for security in the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cYou live in a tough neighborhood,\u201d Mr. Biden <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/07\/19\/us\/politics\/king-abdullah-jordan-biden.html\" title=\"\">said<\/a> as they sat in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The king, who will meet with President Trump on Tuesday, may find Washington to be the tougher neighborhood this time around.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Trump has reiterated his intention to expel Palestinians from the Gaza Strip as part of his plan for the United States to \u201cown\u201d the territory, and on Monday <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/10\/us\/politics\/trump-jordan-egypt-gaza-development.html\" title=\"\">he suggested<\/a> he could consider slashing aid to Jordan and Egypt if their governments refused to take in an estimated 1.9 million Palestinians from Gaza.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Both Jordan and Egypt flatly rejected the idea when Mr. Trump first raised it last week, putting King Abdullah in a bind as he prepares to meet with the president.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Rebuffing Mr. Trump\u2019s demands could imperil the more than <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foreignassistance.gov\/cd\/jordan\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">$1.5 billion<\/a> in foreign aid that Jordan receives each year from the United States. A separate, classified stream of American money flows to Jordan\u2019s intelligence services.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At the same time, more than half of King Abdullah\u2019s approximately 12 million subjects are of Palestinian descent, and Middle East experts say that the survival of his family\u2019s rule depends on him digging in against Mr. Trump\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cKing Abdullah cannot go along with it,\u201d said Paul Salem, the vice president for international engagement at the Middle East Institute in Washington. \u201cHe cannot survive the idea that he\u2019s colluding on the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s existential for him and his government.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">King Abdullah is also expected to use his meeting with Mr. Trump to push against any attempts by Israel to annex part or all of the West Bank, which far-right members of Israel\u2019s government speak openly about and some of Mr. Trump\u2019s appointees <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/06\/us\/politics\/trump-gaza-israel-annexation-palestinian.html\" title=\"\">have long advocated<\/a>. The West Bank sits directly on Jordan\u2019s border, and an Israeli move to take more Palestinian land could lead to violence and unrest that could spill into Jordan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Jordan is already home to approximately 700,000 refugees, most of them Syrians who fled from that country\u2019s civil war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Unlike some of its Middle Eastern neighbors that are drowning in oil wealth, Jordan is heavily reliant on American aid. King Abdullah works hard to cultivate close ties across the U.S. government, and makes it a point to be the first Arab leader to meet with every new president.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Jordan allows American troops access to its military bases, and for decades has received millions of dollars from the C.I.A. to support its intelligence services \u2014 secret payments that began during the reign of the current king\u2019s father, King Hussein.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">King Abdullah, who assumed the throne in 1999, is the longest currently serving leader in the Middle East. Bruce Riedel, a former top Middle East analyst at the C.I.A., said that the king is likely to use his strong relationships with the Pentagon, the C.I.A. and Congress to try to advise the president that a U.S. takeover of the Gaza Strip and the expulsion of Palestinians is \u201ca bad idea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The king met on Sunday with Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, and Mr. Riedel says that Jordan \u201chas a lot of supporters on the Hill, including a lot of Republican supporters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Still, King Abdullah might need to find new patrons if Mr. Trump decides to cut funding to Jordan over its refusal to go along with his plan for Gaza. If this happens, he might find willing donors in the governments of wealthy gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which have also strongly opposed Mr. Trump\u2019s plan for an American takeover of Gaza and expulsion of Palestinians from their land.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Salem believes that Mr. Trump\u2019s biggest goal in the Middle East is still a grand deal that would involve Saudi Arabia officially recognizing Israel, something it would be extremely unlikely to agree to if Mr. Trump follows through on his plans for Gaza.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Saudi government has said that there must be concrete steps toward an independent Palestinian state before the kingdom considers normalizing diplomatic relations with Israel<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For this reason, King Abdullah could have a bit of leverage. He could try to convince a mercurial American president to keep his eyes on the larger prize, and convince him that Jordan is essential to helping him attain it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/11\/us\/politics\/jordans-king-faces-a-bind-as-he-meets-with-trump.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In July 2021, the first time that King Abdullah II of Jordan met with President Joseph R. Biden Jr., he was greeted warmly as a reliable American partner whose country is a bulwark for security in the Middle East. \u201cYou live in a tough neighborhood,\u201d Mr. Biden said as they sat in the Oval Office. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/11\/multimedia\/11dc-trump-jordan-topart-chlj\/11dc-trump-jordan-topart-chlj-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[176434,25880,163575,4408,3553,4326,176435,1378,8527,52,128437,163486],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236401"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236401"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":236403,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236401\/revisions\/236403"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}