DAVOS: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said it should be known within three weeks whether Hamas will agree to give up its weapons, and threatened action if the group does not.
“That’s what they agreed to. They’ve got to do it. And we’re going to know … over the next two or three days — certainly over the next three weeks — whether or not they’re going to do it,” Trump said in a question and answer session following his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“If they don’t do it, they’ll be blown away very quickly. They’ll be blown away.”
Trump said he “won’t use force” to take control of Greenland, but he wants”immediate negotiations” over a US acquisition.
“People thought I would use force, but I don’t have to use force,” the US president told the forum — and many in the rest of the world watching the live stream from the Swiss resort.
“I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force.”
European leaders had been on edge after repeated Trump statements insisting the Arctic island, which is part of Denmark, become part of the United States for national and global security reasons.
Previously Trump had refused to say whether he would rule out sending the US military to fulfil his demand.
In Davos he said he was “seeking immediate negotiations to once again discuss the acquisition of Greenland by the United States.”
Ministers from Denmark, Greenland and the US along with US Vice-President JD Vance already met in Washington on the issue, but those talks yielded little results. The Danes said a working group was being set up to find a way forward. US troops are already stationed in Greenland.
Trump, who spent most of his career in New York real estate, insisted again that the US needs ownership of the large Arctic territory for the sake of setting up a missile defence system and international security.
“You can’t defend it on a lease,” Trump said.
Only the US “is in any position to be able to secure Greenland,” he told the audience in Davos.
Trump has planned a number of meetings on Greenland during the high-profile gathering in the Swiss Alpine resort.
The European Parliament has decided to suspend its work on the European Union’s trade deal with the United States in protest at Trump’s demands to acquire Greenland and threats of tariffs on European allies who oppose his plan. The EU assembly has been debating legislative proposals to remove many EU import duties on US goods, a key part of the agreement struck in Turnberry, Scotland, at the end of July, as well as to continue zero duties for US lobsters, initially agreed with Trump in 2020. — Agencies
