Abdullah hails Trump engagement
King says has hope for Israel-Palestinian peace
WASHINGTON, April 5, (RTRS): Jordan’s King Abdullah praised US President Donald Trump’s commitment to addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and said he had hope for the Arab League peace initiative proposed for the region.
“The president’s early engagement in bringing the Palestinians and Israelis together has been a very encouraging sign for all of us,” Abdullah said at a White House news conference with the new American president.
Abdullah said the Arab League peace initiative “offers a historic reconciliation between Israel and the Palestinians.”
Trump said on Wednesday the United States and its allies will destroy Islamic State and “protect civilization.”
“We will destroy ISIS and we will protect civilization. We have no choice,” Trump said at a joint White House news conference with Jordan’s King Abdullah, referring to Islamic State by an acronym. He said the king has been a leader in the fight to defeat Islamic State “once and for all.”
Meanwhile, Trump denounced the chemical attack in Syria as an “affront to humanity” Wednesday, declaring that it crossed “many, many lines” and cannot be tolerated. But he pointedly refused to say what action the US might take in response.
Trump, facing one of his first major global crises, blamed the attack squarely on Syrian President Bashar Assad. Only days earlier Trump’s administration had said Assad’s ouster was no longer a US priority, but he said the attack that killed 72 people had shifted his views.
“That attack on children yesterday had a big impact on me. Big impact,” Trump said in the White House Rose Garden. “My attitude towards Syria and Assad has changed very much.”
Still, Trump was adamant that he would not telegraph any potential US military retaliation, even as his UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, was promising a strong and perhaps even unilateral American response. Trump said disclosing military action
ahead of time was a mistake the Obama administration had repeatedly made.
“I’m not saying I’m doing anything one way or another, but I’m certainly not going to be telling you,” Trump said.
Trump said the attack was “so horrific” and noted that it had killed “innocent people, small children and even beautiful little babies.”
“These heinous actions by the Assad regime cannot be tolerated,” he said.