Outcry after Trump’s statements on the annexation of Greenland and the “hell” promised to Hamas

The day after the certification of his presidential victory by the US Congress, Donald Trump gave a rambling and provocative press conference on Tuesday, during which he repeated his ambitions to annex the Panama Canal and Greenland, through force if necessary.

While the press conference from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, was supposed to concern a $20 billion investment by the United Arab Emirates to build new data centers in the United States, the future president American quickly moved away from this question to address a wide range of national and international topics for more than an hour.

“Protect the Free World”

As usual, however, it was immediately difficult to distinguish between real announcements and exaggerated opinions in resounding declarations with expansionist overtones. Asked whether he could guarantee that he would not use the armed forces to annex the Panama Canal, a vital artery of global shipping, and Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, Donald Trump replied : “I can’t assure you of either of them. »

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The president-elect has already stated, on several occasions, that he wants to take back the Panama Canal, built by the United States and inaugurated in 1914, if tolls for American ships were not reduced.

Just before Christmas, he also judged that control of Greenland was “an absolute necessity” for “national security and freedom throughout the world”. On Tuesday, he urged Denmark to “give up” on this autonomous territory. “I’m talking about protecting the free world,” he said, referring to the threat of Russian and Chinese ships “almost everywhere.”

Mr. Trump also raised the possibility that Canada would “merge” with the United States and become the American “51st state”, as he has done several times in recent weeks in the midst of a political crisis in his northern neighbor. , which led to the withdrawal of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in power since 2015.

Canada “will never back down from threats”

“Never, ever, will Canada be part of the United States,” Mr. Trudeau said on Tuesday, in a first reaction to repeated attacks from Donald Trump, who notably called him “Governor Trudeau”, in reference to the title of the chief executive of an American state.

During his press conference, the president-elect threatened to use “economic force” against Canada, by increasing customs duties to 25%.

Canada “will never back down in the face of threats,” said Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, one of the contenders to replace Justin Trudeau who resigned on Monday but who remains in office while his Liberal party finds him a successor. “President-elect Trump’s comments demonstrate a complete misunderstanding of what makes Canada strong,” she added.

“The European Union will not let other nations attack its sovereign borders,” declared French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot in response to Donald Trump’s comments on Greenland regarding “ownership and control” of the vast Arctic island that has been part of Denmark for more than 600 years. “There is obviously no question of the European Union allowing other nations of the world to attack its sovereign borders, whatever they may be. […]. We are a strong continent,” said Mr. Barrot.

“I think the American president needs to make more disciplined and more diplomatic statements,” said Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, after Donald Trump warned the Palestinian movement that “all hell will break loose” if Israeli hostages held in Gaza are not released before his inauguration on January 20.

The Palestinian official added that Israel was to blame for undermining all efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement, according to Reuters. Although he did not want to give details on the latest round of negotiations in Qatar, he reiterated the conditions set by Hamas, namely “the complete end of the aggression and the total withdrawal from the territories invaded by ‘occupation’.