MANAMA — Jordan's foreign minister said on Saturday that he did not understand how Israel's goal of obliterating the Palestinian militant group Hamas it is fighting in Gaza could be achieved.
"Israel says it wants to wipe out Hamas. There's a lot of military people here, I just don't understand how this objective can be realized," said Ayman Safadi.
Jordan's foreign minister also warned on Saturday that the Arab kingdom would do "whatever it takes to stop" the displacement of Palestinians, amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
"We will never allow that to happen, in addition to it being a war crime, it would be a direct threat to our national security. We'll do whatever it takes to stop it" Safadi said at the IISS Manama Dialogue security summit in Bahrain.
The Israel-Hamas war has reawakened long-standing fears in Jordan, home to a large population of Palestinian refugees and their descendants. They fear that Israel could expel Palestinians en masse from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian inhabitants have surged since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack.