Trump has said he is going to “sit back” and watch Arab countries craft a counter-proposal to his plan for the U.S. to “take over” the Gaza Strip and forcibly displace 2 million Palestinians, reported Middle East Eye yesterday. He said for the first time on Feb. 21 that he would not force anyone to accept Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, but still thought it was a good idea. “I’m not forcing it. I’m just going to sit back and recommend it, and then the U.S. would own the site,” he told Fox News Radio, adding, “Another way to do it is with people there, but I don’t think it would work. I like my plan.”
A senior Egyptian official told MEE that King Abdullah II of Jordan had informed Trump in private that his plan would provoke “Islamic extremism” and lead to the collapse of pro-U.S. governments across the region. Trump came across as “attentive and sympathetic” in the private meeting, the official briefed on the talks told MEE. That gave Egypt the confidence it needed to take its post-war Gaza plan forward.