Trump said to tell Jordan king: Israel will have a PM named Muhammad if no deal Israel’s Channel 10 claims the US president made the remark half-jokingly after Abdullah warned that many young Palestinians now want ‘one state with equal rights’

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Jordan's King Abdullah II (L) and US First Lady Melania Trump (R) listen while US President Donald Trump makes a statement for the press before a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House June 25, 2018 in Washington, DC. (AFP/Brendan Smialowski)
Jordan’s King Abdullah II (L) and US First Lady Melania Trump (R) listen while US President Donald Trump makes a statement for the press before a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House June 25, 2018 in Washington, DC. (AFP/Brendan Smialowski)

US President Donald Trump reportedly told Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House a few weeks ago that, in the absence of a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israel will have a prime minister named Muhammad in a few years time.

Trump’s reported remark was detailed on Sunday night by Israel’s Channel 10 news, which described it as “sarcastic” and “semi-jocular,” but also as containing a grain of truth. The TV report said its veracity had been confirmed by both an Israeli and an American source, but that the White House and the Jordanian Embassy in Washington, DC, have refused to comment on it.

According to the TV report, the US president’s face-to-face comment to Abdullah was in turn relayed by the Jordanian king to the French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian, during a meeting they had in Amman in early August.

Relating for Le Drian his White House conversation with the US president in late June, Abdullah said he had told Trump, “Many young Palestinians no longer want two states. They want one state with equal rights. The result would be Israel losing its Jewish character.”
As quoted by Channel 10, Trump then replied, “There’s logic in that. [If there’s one state], in a few years the Israeli prime minister’s name will be Muhammad.”

Elsewhere in the conversation, as quoted by the TV report, the king reportedly urged Trump, “Don’t present your [peace] plan now: There are too many difficulties right now. There’s no need to hurry to present the American peace plan.”

To which Trump, unimpressed, reportedly responded: “I want to advance a peace agreement in the Middle East, because if my administration cannot achieve a deal, no administration will be able to.”

The monarch then reportedly complained that he had yet to even see the much-anticipated US proposal, and neither had anyone in Europe.

The Channel 10 report presented the ostensible content of the conversation in Hebrew only. It said Trump had been speaking sarcastically and half-jokingly when he talked of an Israeli prime minister named Mohammad, but noted that there is a grain of truth in every joke.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (r) meets with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on March 26, 2018. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)

Many Israeli advocates of an accommodation with the Palestinians have long warned that if Israel cannot find a way to separate from the Palestinians, it risks losing its Jewish character or undermining its democracy. While Israel’s population is about three-quarters Jewish, there are almost as many non-Jews and Jews in Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip combined.

In public remarks when he welcomed Abdullah to the White House on June 25, Trump said that a “lot of progress” had been made in the Middle East, but did not identify specific areas of improvement. Abdullah had recently met in Jordan with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, who has been working on the US peace proposal.

Trump ignored a question about when he would make the plan public, but said “we’re doing very well” in the Middle East.

Kushner, who had also just met with other top regional officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has said the plan will be released soon. It is likely to face stiff opposition from the Palestinians, who cut contact with the US in the wake of Trumps’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

During his tour in the region, Kushner did not meet with any Ramallah officials, who have refused to meet US representatives since the December decision on Jerusalem.

Palestinian officials have also voiced harsh criticism of Trump and his envoys.

Source:timesofisrael.com