US President Donald Trump’s feedback on ethnically cleaning Palestinians from Gaza and forcing them into Egypt and Jordan might result in a radical reshaping of regional alliances, analysts inform Al Jazeera.
Trump repeated his intentions after assembly with King Abdullah II on Tuesday. He had beforehand indicated that he would use US support to each nations as leverage to attempt to power them to go together with his thought.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II appeared to aim to placate Trump by flattering him and making a pledge to simply accept 2,000 sick youngsters from Gaza into Jordan.
“I lastly see any individual that may take us throughout the end line to convey stability, peace and prosperity to all of us within the area,” the Hashemite monarch advised Trump. Trump known as the road “music to my ears”.
Cairo and Amman have each fervently rejected Trump’s feedback on quite a few events and Egypt will host an emergency Arab Summit on February 27 to kind an Arab-led plan to counter Trump’s broadly sketched plan.
Billions in support
Each Egypt and Jordan have relied closely on US international support for many years.
Egypt has obtained greater than $87bn in US international support since 1946, although army and financial help elevated considerably after Egypt signed a peace settlement with Israel in 1979.
The present $1.4bn in annual army support that the US provides Egypt began in 1979 after the Camp David Accords have been signed between Egypt and Israel.
Right this moment, Egypt is among the highest recipients of US international support within the Center East after Israel.
US international support additionally performs a big function in Jordan.
Israel and Jordan signed the Wadi Araba Treaty in 1994, establishing diplomatic, tourism and commerce relations between the 2 nations that laid the groundwork for Jordan to obtain billions of {dollars} in US support as debt reduction.
The US now provides Jordan $1.72bn a yr in bilateral international help.
Jordan is reeling from cuts of $770m in financial support from USAID, which helped fund some Jordanian ministries, like Schooling and Public Works, and supported the nation’s water safety.
This funding is a serious a part of making Egypt and Jordan’s economies perform, however it additionally helps the US’s regional agenda.
Jordan “has lengthy served as a pro-West companion and continues to play a stabilising function, buffering Israel from Iran and its proxies, internet hosting refugees, combatting terrorism and extremism and serving as a robust and dependable ally to Western powers,” Dima Toukan, a non-resident scholar on the Center East Institute, advised Al Jazeera.
Egypt provides the US facilitations within the area, “together with the motion of US army property throughout the area by preferential passage of the Suez Canal and overflights of Egypt’s territory”, based on an Egyptian government-sponsored article in International Coverage.
All US army support funds Egypt’s buy of weapons methods from US defence contractors, based on a congressional report, making army support to Egypt an oblique type of subsidy for US defence contractors.
“As a fundamental lever of soppy energy, support permits the US a big margin to train affect, handle its picture and domesticate widespread curiosity,” Toukan mentioned.
Huge gap within the finances
The prospect of Trump forcing by his plans to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza evokes stability considerations in Egypt, based on analysts.
For Jordan, these fears are “existential” the analysts mentioned. A lot of Jordan’s inhabitants is already of Palestinian origin and for Jordan to absorb one other million would deeply have an effect on demographics and questions of nationwide id for a lot of within the nation.
To keep away from being pressured into it, Egypt and Jordan would possibly begin to look elsewhere for funding, like their allies within the Gulf and even US opponents for world affect – like Russia and China.
“If the US insists on withdrawing support, different teams and nations will definitely need to fill this hole,” Toukan advised Al Jazeera.
China’s affect in Egypt has grown within the final decade and 2025 has been known as the “12 months of Egyptian-Chinese language Partnership” by the 2 states.
GCC states – who oppose Trump’s ethnic cleaning suggestion and who take pleasure in shut relations with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egypt’s President Abdelfattah el-Sisi – may additionally determine that filling within the funding gaps is of their pursuits.
However even when that have been the case, it’s unlikely the billion-dollar gap of their coffers will probably be totally coated, probably forcing them to “implement deeply unpopular austerity measures that predictably result in protests,” Geoffrey Hughes, writer of the e book, Kinship, Islam and the Politics of Marriage in Jordan: Affection and Mercy, advised Al Jazeera.
“It’s going to additionally instantly hit the safety equipment and all of the tougher since a lot support is routed by the army and police now.”
