Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at U.S. President Donald Trump’s meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Gaza, worsening corruption levels around the world, and the threat of European retaliatory tariffs against the United States.
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Talks on Gaza
Jordanian King Abdullah II faced a tough choice on Tuesday when meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House: either risk billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid that Amman receives every year or anger millions of Palestinian Jordanians by backing Trump’s Gaza displacement plan.
Last week, Trump proposed expelling all of Gaza’s 2.1 million people to neighboring countries, such as Jordan and Egypt, as part of a “real estate development” plan that would ultimately end in U.S. “ownership” of Gaza. Amman and Cairo quickly rejected the idea, but Trump’s insistence on pursuing the plan has deeply alarmed regional leaders.
Trump suggested on Monday that he would consider slashing funding to Jordan and Egypt if they refused to take in Gaza’s displaced population. “If they don’t agree, I would conceivably withhold aid,” he said. Jordan receives more than $1.5 billion in foreign aid from Washington each year, though those funds are currently frozen as part of Trump’s halt on nearly all foreign assistance. (U.S. military aid to Egypt was exempted from the freeze.)
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced on Tuesday that he would postpone his planned visit to Washington next week over Trump’s comments.
During his meeting with Trump, Abdullah “reiterated Jordan’s steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank,” which he described as “the unified Arab position,” according to posts that the king wrote on social media afterward. Beyond that, though, he largely declined to elaborate on his views of Trump’s proposal, at least publicly, saying he would refrain from doing so until Egypt had a chance to weigh in.
However, Abdullah did offer one concession that seemed to please Trump, telling him that Jordan would take in 2,000 Palestinian children from Gaza who are very ill right away—an offer Trump called a “really beautiful gesture.”
Abdullah has maintained close ties with the United States. Jordan allows U.S. troops to access its military bases, and Amman has received millions of dollars from the CIA to support its intelligence infrastructure.
Yet more than half of Jordan’s population is of Palestinian descent, and Middle East experts say Abdullah’s rule depends on their support. “King Abdullah cannot go along with” Trump’s Gaza proposal, said Paul Salem, the vice president for international engagement at the Middle East Institute. “He cannot survive the idea that he’s colluding on the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. It’s existential for him and his government.”
Abdullah’s talk with Trump comes as the cease-fire in Gaza risks unraveling. On Monday, Hamas accused Israel of violating the terms of the deal and said it would indefinitely suspend the release of all remaining hostages until Israeli forces respect the truce. The militant group also condemned Trump’s displacement plan. “We are open to ideas regarding a new form of Palestinian government and administration of Gaza but not to the deportation,” Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qasem said.
Hours later, Trump issued an ultimatum. If all hostages are not released by noon on Saturday, he said, then Israel should cancel the truce deal and “all hell is going to break out.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Trump’s vow on Tuesday, saying, “The military will return to intense fighting until Hamas is finally defeated.”
But Hamas has denounced the warning. “Trump must remember there is an agreement that must be respected by both parties, and this is the only way to bring back the prisoners,” senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters. “The language of threats has no value and only complicates matters.”
Today’s Most Read
What We’re Following
Global corruption worsens. Dozens of countries have received their worst public sector corruption ratings in years, according to Transparency International’s 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index on Tuesday. Out of 180 nations surveyed, 47 hit new lows, suggesting that “corruption levels remain alarmingly high, with efforts to reduce them faltering.” The organization pointed to the misuse of climate funds, growing authoritarianism, and failed anti-corruption campaigns as to blame.
South Sudan displaced Somalia for last place, with an index score of just eight points. But many developed nations also saw drastic drops in transparency, such as the United States, which fell to 28th over a lack of objectivity in its judicial system; Slovakia, which dropped to 59th during its first full year under Prime Minister Robert Fico; and Mexico, which dropped to 140th place after former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador failed to return stolen assets to the public.
The global average for corruption remained unchanged from 2023, with more than two-thirds of countries scoring below 50; according to the index, 0 is “highly corrupt,” and 100 is “very clean.” Denmark held on to first place with a score of 90.
Bargaining for Kursk. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Guardian on Tuesday that he plans to offer part of Russia’s Kursk region to Moscow in exchange for an end to the war. Kyiv seized Kursk during its surprise incursion last August and has suggested that it hopes to use the military operation there as a bargaining chip for future negotiations.
As for which Russian-occupied territories Zelensky hopes to receive in return, the Ukrainian president said, “I don’t know. We will see. But all our territories are important. There is no priority.” Trump has urged both Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin to come to the negotiating table, with little success thus far.
Retaliatory duties. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Tuesday to impose retaliatory tariffs on the United States in response to Trump issuing sweeping 25 percent duties on aluminum and steel imports from all countries. This is on top of looming reciprocal tariffs that Trump said he plans to impose on all nations that have duties on U.S. goods.
“Unjustified tariffs on the EU will not go unanswered,” von der Leyen said. “They will trigger firm and proportionate countermeasures.” European leaders, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, have unified around von der Leyen’s threat, while EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic told the European Parliament on Tuesday that Trump’s newest tariffs are “a lose-lose scenario.”
The United States’ new duties on aluminum and steel are expected to go into effect on March 12, which leaves some time for negotiations. But that hasn’t stopped the EU from preparing for a potential trade war. Although the details remain unclear, experts expect the bloc to tighten safeguards on its domestic steel industry.
Cabinet reshuffle. A fourth minister in Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s cabinet has resigned following Petro’s controversial decision to name Armando Benedetti as his new chief of staff. Benedetti is a former senator who helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Petro’s 2022 presidential campaign. He has been accused of violence against women, and last week, Colombia’s Supreme Court charged him with corruption for allegedly interfering in government contracts.
His appointment sparked a wave of dissent among Petro’s administration, with Environment Minister Susana Muhamad, Culture Minister Juan David Correa, and Interior Minister Juan Fernando Cristo all stepping down in recent days. “As a feminist and as a woman,” Muhamad said, she would not sit in cabinet meetings with Benedetti.
Petro has defended Benedetti, and on Sunday, he ordered all of his ministers to resign, citing a need to tackle a growing security crisis and some ministers’ failure to deliver on key projects. “There will be some changes in the cabinet to achieve greater compliance with the program ordered by the people,” Petro wrote on X. Defense Minister Iván Velásquez Gómez stepped down on Tuesday, and Finance Minister Diego Guevara has confirmed that he will soon follow suit.
Odds and Ends
As Trump sets his sights on seizing Greenland, maybe he should keep an eye on his own backyard. More than 200,000 people as of Tuesday have signed an online petition to purchase California. “Have you ever looked at a map and thought, ‘You know what Denmark needs? More sunshine, palm trees, and roller skates.’ Well, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make that dream a reality,” the petition states in a tongue-and-cheek jest.
While Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has called Trump’s aims “absurd” and has expressed no interest in obtaining California, the same cannot be true on the other side of the Atlantic. Republican Rep. Earl Carter introduced a bill on Tuesday to acquire and rename Greenland “Red, White, and Blueland.”
The post Jordan’s King Abdullah Talks Gaza With Trump appeared first on Foreign Policy.
