Jordan’s FM warns annexation would affect Israeli-Jordanian relations
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, who met with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, also warned that the annexation plan would “kill the two-state solution.”
By KHALED ABU TOAMEHJordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi attends a news conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov following their talks in Moscow, Russia February 19, 2020.(photo credit: EVGENIA NOVOZHENINA/REUTERS)
The Palestinian Authority and Jordan have agreed to step up coordination and joint efforts to foil Israel’s plan to extend its sovereignty to parts of the West Bank, including the Jordan Valley, Palestinian officials said.Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, who met in Ramallah on Thursday with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, warned that the annexation plan would affect Israeli-Jordanian relations and “kill the two-state solution.”The Palestinian-Jordanian agreement came as Palestinian factions called for “mass protests” in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the coming days against the Israeli plan and US President Donald Trump’s vision for Mideast peace, also known as the "Deal of the Century." The factions said that the protests would start next Monday in the Jordan Valley and later extend to other parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.Raed Radwan, a senior member of the ruling Fatah faction, said that the protests aim to send a “peaceful message to the international community that the Palestinian people won’t accept Israel’s policy to liquidate the Palestinian issue.”Safadi’s unexpected visit to Ramallah was the first of its kind by a senior Arab official since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.Safadi delivered a message from King Abdullah to Abbas emphasizing Jordan’s strong opposition to the Israeli annexation plan, the officials said.“The king pledged to pursue diplomatic efforts in the international arena against the annexation plan,” a PA official told The Jerusalem Post. “We are very satisfied with the king’s position and ongoing support for the Palestinian leadership and Palestinian issue.”Another PA official said that Abbas and Safadi agreed on the need to step up efforts to “thwart” the Israeli plan and win international support for the Palestinian and Jordanian stance.Palestinian and Jordanian officials said the visit comes in the context of coordination and consultation between the two sides on developments related to the Palestinian issue, particularly the Israeli annexation plan.Hussein al-Sheikh, head of the Palestinian General Authority of Civil Affairs and member of the ruling Fatah Central Committee, said that the Jordanian minister’s visit to Ramallah was “part of a joint effort to confront the Israeli annexation plan and its repercussions on the region.”
PA Foreign Minister Riad Malki said that the talks with Safadi “focused on how to prevent Israel from annexing large parts of ‘the occupied Palestinian territory,’ and how to coordinate joint Palestinian-Jordanian steps” against the plan.Jordan was making a “huge and courageous effort worldwide to prevent the Israeli annexation,” Malki said.The meeting between with Safadi, he added, “was important, and we talked clearly about how to coordinate joint Palestinian-Jordanian efforts to reach a clear decision to prevent the annexation, and to emphasize the readiness of the State of Palestine, with the backing of Jordan, to sit and negotiate [with Israel] on the basis of international legitimacy.”Malki said that the two sides agreed on pursuing their efforts to prevent the annexation, “which would have repercussions on peace and security in the region.”Safadi said after the meeting that his visit was in the framework of the process of ongoing coordination and consultation between the kingdom and the Palestinians.“The position I carried today reaffirms the kingdom’s historic and firm stance, which is based on fulfilling the rights of our [Palestinian] brothers to freedom and establishing a Palestinian state on the June 4, 1967 borders, as the only way to achieve a just and comprehensive peace. Our historical message is that Jordan stands with all its capabilities alongside our brothers in upholding their full legitimate rights.”Safadi warned that the annexation plan would have “unprecedented consequences on the peace process, kill the two-state solution, destroy all the foundations of the peace process and deprive the peoples of the region of their right to live in security, peace and stability.”Preventing the annexation, he argued, was aimed at protecting peace, adding that efforts were now focused on “finding a new horizon for a return to serious and effective negotiations to achieve peace on the basis of the two-state solution.Safadi said that the annexation plan, if implemented, “means that Israel has chosen conflict instead of peace, and it would bear the consequences of such a decision, not only regarding Jordanian-Israeli relations, but also on the efforts of the whole region to achieve a just and comprehensive peace.”Safadi’s visit to Ramallah came one day after King Abdullah held a series of teleconference meetings with US committees and leading members of Congress on the annexation plan.“The king reaffirmed that any unilateral Israeli measure to annex lands in the West Bank is unacceptable and undermines the prospects of achieving peace and stability in the Middle East,” the Jordanian news agency Petra reported.The Jordanian monarch also reiterated Jordan’s “steadfast position on the Palestinian cause, highlighting the importance of achieving a comprehensive and just peace on the basis of the two-state solution, guaranteeing the establishment of an independent, sovereign, and viable Palestinian state on the June 4, 1967 lines, with east Jerusalem as its capital,” Petra reported. “Discussions also covered efforts to reach political solutions to regional crises, as well as regional and international efforts to fight terrorism within a holistic approach.”Meanwhile, Hamas praised Jordan for its rejection of the annexation plan.Senior Hamas official Izzat al-Risheq said that Hamas “appreciates Jordan’s honorable position, which is an extension of the historical positions of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in support of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.”Risheq said that Hamas “renews its support for the Jordanian position in rejecting this dangerous project that aims to seize more Palestinian lands and part of the Jordan Valley, and constitutes an existential threat to the present and future of Palestine, and a real danger to Jordan.”The Hamas official condemned “attempts by some parties to exert pressure and political blackmail against Jordan because of its courageous stance towards this criminal plot.” He called on Arab and Islamic states and governments to unite efforts in rejecting the annexation plan.
