Jordan’s King Abdullah II has been invited to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Feb. 11, the Royal Hashemite Court announced Sunday, claiming an invite was received last week.
“King Abdullah II will meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday, February 11, 2025, after His Majesty received an invitation letter from President Trump last week,” the palace stated.
Abdullah is one of the first foreign leaders to receive an invite to the White House since Trump returned for his second term on Jan. 20.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took off for the United States on Sunday ahead of a Tuesday meeting at the White House.
“The fact that this would be President Trump’s first meeting with a foreign leader since his inauguration is telling,” the premier stated ahead of his departure, calling it “a testimony to the strength” of the U.S.-Israel alliance, as well as his “personal friendship” with Trump.
On Jan. 25, Trump called on Arab nations, including Jordan and Egypt, to take in more Palestinians to “clean out” Gaza. Both Abdullah and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi have rejected the proposal.
An estimated 70 percent of Jordan’s 12 million residents are Palestinian.
Asked by a reporter on Jan. 30 what Trump planned to do to make the two Arab countries take Palestinians in, the U.S. president declared, “They will do it. They will do it. They’re gonna do it, OK. We do a lot for them, and they’re gonna do it,” he said of the billions in economic assistance the U.S. has provided to Jordan and Egypt since the 1950s.
“We do a lot for them, and they’re gonna do it,” he said of the billions in economic assistance the U.S. has provided to Jordan since the 1950s.
The government in Amman has long taken criticism for its refusal to extradite to the U.S. Palestinian terrorist Ahlam Tamimi, responsible for a 2001 suicide bombing in central Jerusalem in which 16 people, including three U.S. citizens, were murdered and some 130 were wounded.
Tamimi was arrested a few weeks after the massacre and sentenced to 16 terms of life imprisonment in an Israeli court. She was later freed to Jordan as part of a 2011 prisoner exchange by Israel in an agreement with Hamas that saw the release of Israel Defense Forces Sgt. Gilad Shalit.
Tamimi is on America’s “Most Wanted Terrorist” list. However, the U.S. has been unable to secure her extradition as a 1995 extradition agreement was not ratified by Jordan.
