Biden to host Jordan’s Abdullah in Washington as Gaza truce-hostage deal hopes dim
Jordanian diplomat says two leaders will sit down in White House for ‘informal private meeting’
US President Joe Biden will meet Middle East ally Jordanian King Abdullah II at the White House on Monday, with prospects for a Gaza truce deal and a release of the hostages held in Gaza appearing slim and Hamas and Israel blaming each other for the impasse.
A Jordanian diplomat told Reuters that Monday’s meeting between Biden and King Abdullah is not a formal bilateral meeting but an informal private meeting. It comes as the Biden administration and Israeli officials remain at odds over Israel’s planned military incursion in Rafah, as the IDF began issuing evacuation orders for parts of the city on Monday.
A Hamas delegation departed Cairo on Sunday as the latest round of talks began to fall apart, with the terror group continuing to insist that any deal be contingent on the end of the war, which Israel has consistently rejected. Also Sunday, Hamas attacked an IDF post near the Kerem Shalom crossing, killing four soldiers.
Biden last met King Abdullah at the White House in February, and the two longtime allies discussed a daunting list of challenges, including the looming Israeli ground offensive in southern Gaza and the threat of a humanitarian calamity among Palestinian civilians.
Jordan and other Arab states have been highly critical of Israel’s actions and have been demanding a ceasefire since mid-October, when civilian casualties in the Strip began to skyrocket in the IDF’s campaign against Hamas, launched following the terror group’s October 7 terror onslaught against southern Israel.
Abdullah’s wife, Queen Rania, sat for a lengthy interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation,” which aired on Sunday, saying that “Israel could have retaliated through surgical strikes against Hamas, but that’s not what we’re seeing today. We are seeing a war that isn’t fought in a defensive way.”
Biden last spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on April 28 and “reiterated his clear position” on a possible invasion of the Gaza border city of Rafah, the White House said. The US president has been vocal in his demand that Israel not undertake a ground offensive in Rafah without a plan to protect Palestinian civilians.
