President Donald Trump welcomed the king and queen of Jordan at the White House on June 25.
King Abdullah II Bin Al-Hussein and Queen Rania Al Abdullah arrived at the South Portico on a sunny afternoon. The royals’ official visit started on June 22 and will conclude on June 26.
The president and First Lady Melania Trump came out of the White House as the royal motorcade pulled out in front of a red carpet. After greetings and handshakes, the group posed for photos near the Rose Garden colonnade and went inside.
The two leaders made brief remarks to the gathered reporters.
“It’s a great honor to have the king and queen of Jordan with us. They’re friends. We’ve known each other now for quite a while, long before this,” Trump said.
Trump congratulated the king for doing an “incredible job” in taking care of refugees. The king responded by thanking Trump for supporting Jordan.
“If the rest of the world just took a little bit of your humility and your grace to help us, we'd be in a lot better position,” the king said.
The president and the king were expected to discuss the stalled Israeli–Palestinian peace process and other Middle East issues.
The White House said in a statement that Trump and Abdullah II would “discuss issues of mutual concern, including terrorism, the threat from Iran, and the crisis in Syria, and working towards a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.”
When asked about the Middle East peace plan, Trump said, “We’re doing very well.”
“His Majesty knows we’re doing very well in the Middle East. A lot of progress has been made in the Middle East,” Trump said. “And it really started with the end of the horrible Iran deal. That deal was a disaster, and things are a lot different since we ended that.”
On June 19, the king met with Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner and special Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt in Amman.
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