[ad_1]
The meeting between Isaac Herzog and King Abdullah II in Amman is a sign of improved relations between the two countries.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog revealed that he met with King Abdullah II of Jordan in Amman. This was an unannounced meeting held in the context of the improvement of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
“Last week I met with the King of Jordan and had a long conversation. I spent one night in his palace. It was an excellent meeting,” Herzog interviewed on Israeli TV on Saturday. Said in.
The entire interview will be broadcast on Sunday, the eve of Rosh Hashanah starting on Monday night.
“Jordan is a very important country. I respect King Abdullah very much. He is a great leader and a very important regional actor,” Herzog said in a statement issued by his office.
The statement said that the meeting was held in King Abdullah’s palace and the two leaders discussed a series of political and economic issues, including energy and sustainability.
It talked about “a warm meeting at the invitation of the king”, during which the two discussed “deep strategic issues.”
“What we discussed included the core issues of the dialogue between our states, including agreements on importing agricultural products in the Shemita (agricultural leave) year, energy issues, sustainability, and solutions to the climate crisis that we can work together to advance,” the statement said .
Mend a strained relationship
Jordan and Egypt are the only two neighboring countries that have signed a peace treaty with Israel.
Relations between Israel and Jordan deteriorated during Benjamin Netanyahu’s prime minister, and critics accused him of ignoring the Hashemite Kingdom by agreeing to normalize relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco last year. .
Diplomatic relations have also become strained due to tensions in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem and Israel’s expansion of illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
However, shortly after he took office in June, the new prime minister Naftali Bennet flew to Amman to hold talks with King Abdullah. The following week, Jordan and Israel signed two breakthrough water and trade agreements.
The two countries agreed that Israel would sell 50 million cubic meters of water to Jordan each year, in addition to the 55 million cubic meters it had already provided free of charge.
According to the agreement, Jordan was allowed to increase exports to Palestinians in the West Bank occupied by Israel since 1967.
Earlier this week, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz met with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in the first high-level meeting between the two sides in years.
Gantz said that the Israeli government is interested in supporting Abbas’s competition with Gaza’s ruling Hamas, including plans to lend 150 million U.S. dollars to the cash-strapped self-governing government in the West Bank.
[ad_2]
Source link