Jordan to take sick Gaza kids as Trump pushes takeover plan

King Abdullah II of Jordan speaks during a meeting with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, Feb. 11, 2025. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 11 February 2025
Follow

Jordan to take sick Gaza kids as Trump pushes takeover plan

  • Jordan would take in some 2,000 sick children from war-torn Gaza
  • US president called it a 'beautiful gesture' and said he didn’t know about it before the Jordanian monarch’s arrival at the White House

WASHINGTON: Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Tuesday told Donald Trump that his country would take in some 2,000 sick children from war-torn Gaza, as the US president pushed his plan to take over the territory and push out Palestinians.
Speaking at the White House, King Abdullah added that Egypt would present a proposal on how countries in the region could “work” with Trump on the plan, despite Arab nations and the Palestinians having rejected it outright.
“I think one of the things that we can do right away is take 2,000 children, cancer children who are in a very ill state, that is possible,” King Abdullah said as Trump welcomed him and Crown Prince Hussein in the Oval Office.
Trump called it a “beautiful gesture” and said he didn’t know about it before the Jordanian monarch’s arrival at the White House.
The US president meanwhile backed down on a suggestion that he could withhold aid for Jordan and Egypt if they refused to take in more than two million Palestinians from Gaza.
“I think we’ll do something. I don’t have to threaten that, I do believe we’re above that,” Trump said.
Trump stunned the world when he announced a proposal last week for the United States to “take over” Gaza, envisioning rebuilding the devastated territory into the “Riviera of the Middle East” — but only after resettling Palestinians elsewhere, with no plan for them ever to return.
Jordan’s King Abdullah was repeatedly pressed by reporters on whether he supported the plan, but said only that Egypt was coming up with a response and that Arab nations would then discuss it at talks in Riyadh.
“The president is looking at Egypt coming to present that plan... (then) we will be in Saudi Arabia to discuss how we should work with the president and with the United States,” King Abdullah said.
“The point is, how do we make this work in a way that is good for everybody," he added.


Germany charges suspected former Syrian intelligence agent with dozens of murders

Updated 4 sec ago
Follow

Germany charges suspected former Syrian intelligence agent with dozens of murders

  • Accused, identified as Fahad A, is suspected of interrogating, torturing and killing inmates in Damascus prison under Bashar Assad
German prosecutors have charged a suspected former member of Syrian intelligence with crimes against humanity and the torture ​and murder of dozens of prisoners held in a Damascus prison under Bashar Assad, a statement said on Monday.
The accused, who was arrested in May and identified only as Fahad A. under German privacy rules, ‌was suspected ‌of working as a ‌guard ⁠in ​a prison ‌in the Syrian capital between the end of April 2011 and mid-April 2012, it said.
“There, he participated in well over 100 interrogations during which prisoners were subjected to severe physical abuse, such ⁠as electric shocks or beatings with cables,” it ‌said.
“On the orders of ‍his superiors, ‍the accused also abused inmates at night, ‍for example by hanging them from the ceiling, dousing them with cold water, or forcing them to remain in uncomfortable positions. ​As a result of such mistreatment and the catastrophic prison conditions, at ⁠least 70 prisoners died.”
German prosecutors have used universal jurisdiction laws that allow them to seek trials for suspects in crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world.
Based on these laws, several people suspected of war crimes during the Syrian conflict have been arrested in the last few years in Germany, ‌which is home to around one million Syrians.