Donald Trump has signed an executive order withdrawing from the United Nations’ Human Rights Council. Shortly afterward, he issued a memorandum on Iran, saying Tehran was “too close” to a nuclear weapon.
Tuesday 4 February 2025 22:10, UK
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Donald Trump says he wants there to be a “beautiful area” where Palestinians can “resettle permanently”.
Speaking alongside Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office, the US president said being in Gaza was like “living in hell”.
“I think they’ll be settled in areas where they can live a beautiful life and not be worried about dying every day,” he said.
“Gaza is not a place for people to be living, and the only reason they want to go back, and I believe this strongly, is because they have no alternative.”
He continued: “It’s too dangerous for people. Nobody can go there. It’s too dangerous.
“Nobody wants to be there. Warriors don’t want to be there. Soldiers don’t want to be there. How can you have people go back? You’re saying go back into Gaza now? The same thing’s going to happen. It’ll only be death.”
Donald Trump has an “almighty diplomatic challenge” on his hands meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, says our US correspondent Mark Stone.
The Israeli prime minister is the first foreign leader to visit Trump during his second term in office, which “he will be thrilled about”, according to Stone.
But aside from the warm welcome, there will still be plenty of important discussions going on inside the White House, with Trump hoping to build on his early success brokering peace between Hamas and Israel.
Netanyahu will give Trump a “clear message” that the US must deal with Iran and its attempt to build a nuclear weapon.
“What we will see is how Donald Trump reacts and whether Donald Trump wants to take out Iran’s nuclear facilities,” Stone tells The World with Yalda Hakim.
“Because that might not fall in line with his peace plan, as he would say it, across the Middle East, because of the turmoil that it could prompt.”
Stone adds that the two leaders will also discuss normalising relations with Saudi Arabia, which Trump achieved during his first term with the Abraham Accords.
That normalisation took a hit after the 7 October attacks and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza, Stone adds.
“Saudi Arabia’s red line for normalisation with Israel is a Palestinian state – a two-state solution which Netanyahu has pretty much said he doesn’t want,” he says.
“So there is the catch 22 for Donald Trump. If he wants to get his normalisation deal and redraw the Middle East effectively, then he has got to somehow deliver a Palestinian state and Israel is the sticking block.
“It’s an almighty diplomatic challenge. To be a fly on the wall in the Oval Office right now would be fascinating.”
The Trump administration appears to have begun flying undocumented immigrants from the US to a military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said today that at least two deportation flights were “under way”, but gave no further details.
Kristi Noem, the secretary of Homeland Security, posted on X a short time ago showing images of men in tracksuits and handcuffs being led towards a plane.
“Guantanamo Bay will hold the worst of the worst,” she says.
“That starts today.”
Donald Trump has just welcomed Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House.
The Israeli prime minister is the first foreign leader to visit Trump since he was inaugurated for his second term as president.
Earlier, Trump said the two leaders would have a “pretty long meeting” where they would discuss “a lot of things”.
The Senate’s intelligence committee today voted to back Donald Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence.
Tulsi Gabbard received a 9-8 vote in her favour, clearing an important hurdle for her nomination.
The committee’s action opens the way for the full Senate to decide if Gabbard, a 43-year-old former Democrat, should be confirmed as the country’s top-ranking intelligence official.
No date has been announced for her consideration by the full 100-member Senate, where she cannot afford to lose the support of more than three of Trump’s fellow Republicans and still be confirmed, given unified Democratic opposition.
Democrats, and some Republicans, had expressed doubts about the choice of Gabbard, who has little intelligence experience, for the position overseeing all 18 US intelligence agencies.
During her confirmation hearing she faced intense questioning from senators from both parties about her past defence of Edward Snowden and comments seen as supportive of Russia.
Speaking to reporters as he signed an executive order in the Oval Office, Donald Trump says he and Benjamin Netanyahu are going to have a “pretty long meeting” later.
Trump is hosting the Israeli prime minister in Washington as the first foreign leader to meet him during his second term as president.
“It’d be great if we could have a Middle East and maybe a world at total peace,” said Trump.
“Right now, you don’t have that. When I left, you had peace all over the world, and now you have the world blowing up.
“As you know, Bibi is coming in to see me later. We’ll see what we can do.”
Will the US help Israel strike Iran?
Part of the executive order Trump just signed included re-imposing the “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran.
The president said Tehran was “too close” to developing a nuclear weapon.
Asked if, during his meeting with Netanyahu later, he would offer Israel help to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, Trump said he couldn’t discuss it.
“I don’t know that that’s what he’s going to be asking for,” he said. “I have no idea that it is. You’re telling me.
“We’re going to have a pretty long meeting. We’re going to be discussing a lot of things. Not only that, but a lot of things.
“And, I’ll let you know if the time comes to let you know. But right now, that’s not something that I can discuss.”
Here are the images we’re receiving from the White House, where Donald Trump has been signing an executive order.
The order withdraws the US from the main UN agency for Palestinian refugees, as well as re-imposing the “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran and withdraws the US from the UN Human Rights Council.
More from Donald Trump now, who has just confirmed that he plans to “wind down” the US government’s international aid agency.
The agency has been in turmoil as the Trump administration considers merging USAID into the State Department in a major revamp that would shrink its workforce.
Trump said billionaire Elon Musk, who is in charge of the effort, has been doing a “great job” and that there is a lot of fraud at the agency.
He also said he would like to be able to close the Department of Education using an executive order.
Read more about USAID with our explainer here…
Donald Trump says Palestinians have “no alternative” but to leave Gaza, but that he doesn’t necessarily support Israelis settling in the enclave.
The US president also repeated previous suggestions that he would like to see Jordan and Egypt take Palestinians from Gaza.
For context: Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been returning to their homes following a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel.
Many of their homes have been destroyed by months of fighting.
Trump has previously described Gaza as a “demolition site”, saying the US should “clean out that whole thing”.
More from the White House – and Donald Trump has signed a memorandum on Iran.
The president said he was “torn” when choosing whether to sign it or not, but said Tehran was “too close” to having a nuclear weapon.
Trump said he would hold talks with his counterpart in Tehran, but warned he’s left “instructions” that if Iran assassinated him, the US foe “would be obliterated”.
At the end of last year, officials charged a man over an alleged Iranian plot to kill Trump before the presidential election.
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