After officials from Egypt and Jordan rejected the idea they would accept Gazan refugees while the enclave is being “cleared out,” U.S. President Donald Trump asserted their leaders would come around to his plan.

Talking about his earlier comments with reporters on Air Force One on Monday, Trump said he would “like to get them living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence so much.”

“When you look at the Gaza Strip, it’s been hell for so many years,” Trump said.

“There have been various civilizations on that strip. It didn’t start here. It started thousands of years before, and there’s always been violence associated with it. You could get people living in areas that are a lot safer and maybe a lot better and maybe a lot more comfortable.”

Asked about those countries rejecting his idea, Trump replied, “I wish [Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi] would take some. We helped them a lot, and I’m sure he’d help us. He’s a friend of mine. He’s in… a rough neighborhood. But I think he would do it, and I think the king of Jordan would do it too,” the president added.

All Israel News Editor-in-Chief Joel Rosenberg, speaking from Egypt’s capital of Cairo, estimated that Trump’s comments at this stage are only the starting position in a longer discussion.

Read the full article at All Israel News.