Jordan’s king to Israeli PM: Palestinians must join regional projects
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi
AMMAN (Reuters) -Jordan’s king informed Israel’s visiting prime minister on Wednesday that Palestinians must be a part of U.S.-sponsored regional financial tasks to underpin stability within the Center East.
Jordanian officers say Amman has been pushing Israel to incorporate the Palestinians in water-for-energy offers that each nations are contemplating and which Gulf Arab nations may assist finance.
Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994 however the Israeli-Palestinian battle has lengthy weighed on their bilateral relations. Palestinians search statehood in territories occupied by Israel in a 1967 conflict. Peacemaking has been frozen since 2014.
King Abdullah reiterated to Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, of their first assembly since U.S. President Joe Biden’s go to to the area earlier this month, {that a} Palestinian state was important to achieve lasting peace between Arabs and Israelis.
The Jordanian king and Lapid mentioned accelerating bilateral financial tasks within the water, vitality and meals safety sectors, in addition to transport, an Israeli authorities assertion stated.
Israel, which already supplies Jordan some freshwater provides underneath their peace deal, has lengthy sought to promote desalinated water as nicely.
However the kingdom has as a substitute been pushing Israel to chill out its grip on the move of Jordanian exports to the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution, a pure, adjoining marketplace for its items.
Jordanian officers say the shift in U.S. coverage underneath President Joe Biden again in direction of a dedication to a two-state answer to the Israeli-Palestinian battle has eased strain on Jordan, a majority of whose 10 million inhabitants is Palestinian.
The result of Biden’s go to to the area, throughout which Washington pushed for additional normalisation in Israeli-Arab relations to construct a entrance towards frequent foe Iran, was additionally mentioned by the king and Lapid, a Jordanian official stated.
Bilateral relations between Jordan and Israel, which have lengthy cooperated towards safety threats, have improved since right-wing former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu misplaced his re-election bid final yr after 12 years in workplace.
(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi in Amman and Maayan Lubell in JerusalemEditing by Mark Heinrich)
