King of Jordan Refuses to Knock Trump on Refugees

Jordan’s King Abdullah II declined to criticize President Donald Trump’s policies on refugees or his efforts to increase scrutiny of travelers coming from a half-dozen terrorism-compromised countries.

During a joint news conference after Abdullah’s first meeting with Trump at the White House on Wednesday, a reporter from the Associated Press invited the king to take shots at the president. Abdullah was having none of it, however.

“Well, as I think the president pointed out, most, if not all, Syrian refugees actually want to go back to Syria.”

“Well, as I think the president pointed out, most, if not all, Syrian refugees actually want to go back to Syria,” he said. “And we’re working with the United States and the international community … to be able to stabilize the refugees in our country, give them the tools so that as we’re working with the solutions in Syria, we have the ability to be able to send them back as positive influence into their economies.”

Trump sparked a firestorm in the United States when he signed an executive order temporarily suspending the refugee resettlement programs and travel from terror-prone countries whose citizens would present “heightened risks” to the United States. The rationale was to provide some breathing space while national security officials review steps taken to ensure that terrorists cannot slip into the country.

But Trump’s critics dubbed it a “Muslim ban” and succeeded in getting judges to block it from taking effect.

The refugee issue is particularly sensitive in Jordan, a small, moderate Muslim country that is hosting about 630,000 refugees from Syria.

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But Abdullah appeared to be in no mood to second-guess Trump. In fact, he praised him.

“The president and the Europeans are being very forward-leaning in being able to look after our [refugee] community,” he said. “Tremendous burden on our country, but again, tremendous appreciation to the United States and the Western countries for being able to help us.”

Abdullah also praised Trump for his “early engagement” on Jordan’s “core conflict,” the long-running Palestinian-Israeli dispute.

“The president knows this,” he said. “He has his instincts in the right place, and working with his team, our job, as I said, is to do the heavy lifting. The Arabs are prepared to do whatever they can to bring Israelis and Palestinians together under the leadership of the president.”

The president took the opportunity to signal a significant shift in his administration’s policy toward the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad, which is alleged to have used chemical weapons in an attack Tuesday on an area of northern Syria held by jihadists. According the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in the U.K., 20 children and 52 adults were killed in the attack.

“Well I think the Obama administration had a great opportunity to solve this crisis a long time ago when he said the ‘red line in the sand,’” Trump said. “And when he didn’t cross that line after making the threat, I think that set us back a long ways, not only in Syria but in many other parts of the world. Because it was a blank threat. I think it was something that was not one of our better days as a country.”

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But Trump acknowledged that it’s now up to him.

“I now have responsibility, and I will have that responsibility and carry it very proudly … It is now my responsibility,” he said.

The president offered no specifics but made a veiled threat to the Syrian government.

“You will see,” he said. “They will have a message. You will see what the message is.”