Biden Drops Jordan Trip After Leaders Cancel Meeting in ‘Disappointing Setback’ for President

President Joe Biden dropped his planned trip to Jordan on Tuesday after a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was canceled following a hospital bombing in Gaza.

The White House announced on Monday that Biden would travel to Jordan for the meeting following a trip to Israel “to demonstrate his steadfast support for Israel.”

A statement from White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated that Biden would “reiterate that Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination and discuss the humanitarian needs of civilians in Gaza” during the meeting.

On Tuesday evening, the White House announced that Biden would no longer travel to Jordan after Abbas pulled out of the meeting over a hospital explosion in Gaza which killed at least 500 people.

Hamas accused Israel of being responsible for the explosion, while Israel claimed the explosion was the result of a Palestinian rocket accident.

In a statement, the White House said:

After consulting with King Abdullah II of Jordan and in light of the days of mourning announced by President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, President Biden will postpone his travel to Jordan and the planned meeting with these two leaders and President Sisi of Egypt. The president sent his deepest condolences for the innocent lives lost in the hospital explosion in Gaza, and wished a speedy recovery to the wounded.

On CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, CNN senior White House correspondent MJ Lee weighed in, “I can tell you, this is going to be a very big sort of setback for this administration. We know, obviously, how important that meeting with President Abbas was going to be. Any chance of there being diplomatic conversations, any diplomatic efforts, would need to include him.”

She continued:

So that is going to be a setback as far as this trip is concerned and the fact that the president is no longer going to be meeting face-to-face with Egypt’s President Sisi. That’s a country that has been so central to all of the conversations we have been talking about, in terms of the U.S. trying to secure humanitarian aid getting into Gaza, establishment of a humanitarian corridor so that people who want to leave Gaza can leave.

President Biden is somebody who, advisers around him will always tell you, very much believes in the power of being in the room, meeting face-to-face with these leaders, so the fact he’s no longer going to be having this meeting in person in Jordan, again, is going to be a disappointing setback. The White House has said though that this meeting is postponed, suggesting that they will try to have these conversations still take place. But again, it is not going to be something we see happen tomorrow.

Watch above via CNN.

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