US President says he spoke to Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi about his relocation plan: I wish he would take some. We helped them a lot, and I’m sure he’d help us.
US President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that he had spoken to Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi about the relocation plan he proposed over the weekend, which would see Egypt and Jordan taking in Gazans who fled the fighting in the Gaza Strip.
“I’d like to get them living in an area where they can live without disruption, revolution … when you look at the Gaza Strip it’s been hell for so many years,” said Trump.
“It just seems to me there’s been various civilizations on that Strip and, you know, it didn’t start here. It started thousands of years before, and there’s always been violence associated with it,” added the President. “So I think you could get people living in areas that are a lot safer and maybe a lot better and maybe a lot more comfortable.”
“I wish [Sisi] would take some [Gazans]. We helped them a lot, and I’m sure he’d help us. He’s a friend of mine. He’s in a very rough part of the world, to be honest. As they say, It’s a rough neighborhood. But I think he would do it, and I think the King of Jordan would do it too,” continued Trump.
Trump was asked if his remarks mean he still supports a two-state solution, and responded by saying that he will be “speaking with Bibi Netanyahu in the not-too-distant future. He’s coming here to meet with me.” Asked when that meeting will take place, Trump replied, “Very soon.”
Trump initially floated the relocation idea over the weekend, telling reporters he had brought it up in a conversation with King Abdullah II of Jordan.
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday firmly rejected Trump’s idea, reiterating its “continued support for the steadfastness of the Palestinian people on their land.”
The Ministry emphasized that it “rejected any infringement on those inalienable rights, whether by settlement or annexation of land, or by the depopulation of that land of its people through displacement, encouraged transfer or the uprooting of Palestinians from their land, whether temporarily or long-term.”
