When Jordan ruined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s triumphant pre-election visit to the United Arab Emirates last week, analysts say, he was sending him a message: stop on the sidelines.
The Hashemite kingdom – which maintained a low profile during the term of former US President Donald Trump, who was close to Netanyahu – now believes the winds have shifted and Joe Biden will show a more balanced approach.
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King Jordan Abdullah II
(Photo: Reuters)
Last Thursday, Jordan delayed allowing Netanyahu to cross its airfield to the UAE, forcing him to launch his trip to the wealthy Gulf state with which Israel made normal relationship in last year’s landmark agreement.
This move was addressed to Netanyahu, who is campaigning for re-election on March 23rd.
Jordan ‘s move “sent a sudden and resolute message to make him realize that he no longer accepts his approach to behavior,” said Ahmad Awad of the Phenix Center for Informatics Economics and Science in Amman.
Netanyahu had been meeting with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan to mark the historic agreement between Israel and the UAE on what is his first official visit to the Gulf state.
“Jordan chose the right time to scramble what should have been a show of victory and a campaign event for Netanyahu,” said Oraib al-Rantawi, director of the Al Quds Center for Political Studies.
“This move has turned into a crisis between the two countries.”
The former Israeli leader is opposed to his fourth election battle in less than two years.
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LR: Bahrain FM Abdullatif al-Zayani, PM Benjamin Netanyahu, then US President Donald Trump, and Emirati FM Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan at the signing of the Abraham Treaties at the White House last year
(Photo: AFP)
With a continuous graft test hanging over his head, he is embarking on both a world-leading COVID vaccination tour and as a statesman who delivered a diplomatic breach.
In the so-called Abraham Accords with the US under Trump, Israel established relations with Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco – the first such agreements in the Arab world since its peace treaties with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan there. in 1994.
Palestinians believed these treaties as a betrayal, accepting that Arab states should segregate Israel so that the people living on the West Bank should have their own independent states. and the Gaza Strip.
Diplomatic talks between the Palestinians and Washington ceased after Trump allowed Israel to invade the West Bank. Jordan, home of many Palestinian refugees, had strongly opposed that idea.
Awad said, “After years of deliberate isolation under American administration further to the right than the south of Israel, Jordan is in the process of renewing the position with the coming of Biden”.
Rantawi also said, with Trump out of the picture, that “Jordan today feels more comfortable”.
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King Abdullah II’s meeting with Trump at the White House in 2017
(Photo: Reuters)
“The Trump administration threatened the crucial interests of Jordan for the final resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he said.
He outlined a vision of making Jordan a substitute state for the Palestinians, an idea that Amman and the Palestinians could not accept.
Rantawi said while the Trump administration strongly supported Israel’s position on the long-running controversy, the Biden administration “supports the two-state solution and considers Jordan as a partner ”.
“He has returned to traditional American positions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
Tensions erupted last week after Israel canceled a planned visit by the crown prince of Jordan to the Al-Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem, a part of the Holy City that was affiliated with the Jewish state and claimed as the future capital by the Palestinians.
According to Jordanian diplomatic leader Ayman Safadi, Prince Hussein decided to postpone his visit after Israel announced that it would change its program at the last minute.
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Prince Hussein at Jordan’s Crown addresses the United Nations General Assembly
(Photo: AP)
Underpinning this is the struggle between the two countries for control of the esplanade that is home to the Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest site.
While Israel controls the east of Jerusalem, the mosque is administered by the Waqf, a body that governs Muslim property and is, for historical reasons, dependent on Jordan.
Safadi explained Jordan’s position in the spat with Israel on CNN on Friday.
“You come back with an agreement with Jordan, you interrupt a religious journey, you create situations that made this religious journey at an impossible holy time and then you expect to come to Jordan and fly out of Jordan? “He said.
A Jordanian official who requested anonymity told AFP that “Netanyahu’s relationship has been strained for several years”.
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Muslims hold Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem
(Photo: AP)
He said King Abdullah II “refuses to accept or answer his phone calls”. Their last meeting was officially announced in June 2018, and the previous one in 2014.
Jordan’s King Abdullah has described peace with Israel as a “cold peace” and at the end of 2019 said Israel-Jordan relations were “at an all-time low”.