US President Donald Trump has warned that if Israelis and Palestinian do not separate, “Israel will have a prime minister named Mohammad.”
According to Channel 10 television news, Trump’s comments were made in a phone call with Jordanian King Abdullah II in June, and may have been meant partly sarcastically.
Abdullah reportedly told French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian about the call last month.
In a paraphrase of the conversation broadcast by Channel 10, based on French diplomatic reports and confirmed by US and Israeli sources, Abdullah warned Trump in the June call that young Palestinians “don’t want the two-state solution anymore, but one state with equal rights. The result is that Israel will lose its Jewish character.”
Trump then answered: “Look, that makes sense. [If it happens,] in a few years the name of Israel’s prime minister will be Mohammad.”
Abdullah urged Trump not to present the administration’s peace plan. “There are too many difficulties right now. We don’t have to hurry with presenting the American peace plan,” he reportedly said.
Trump replied, according to the report: “I want to advance a Middle East peace agreement, because if my administration can’t reach a deal, no administration can.”
Channel 10 says Israeli and American officials confirmed the details. The Jordanian embassy and the White House, however, refused to comment.
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