Jordan’s king to raise West Bank worries during talks with Biden
Jordan’s King Abdullah II will meet US President Joe Biden at the White House today to discuss the escalating violence in the Middle East since the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war, and Amman’s concerns over the situation in the occupied West Bank.
Mr Biden and the king will also talk about postwar plans for the Palestinian territories, where the US is pushing “for a durable peace to include a two-state solution with Israel’s security guaranteed”, the White House said.
King Abdullah is expected to ask Mr Biden to maintain pressure on Israel to contain its incursions in the West Bank and curb settler attacks on Palestinians, two western diplomats in Amman told The National.
“Any deterioration in the West Bank will hit home in Jordan,” one diplomat said.
“The reason the situation is remaining somewhat contained there, and the settlers are not running completely amok, is the US pressure on Israel.”
Several hundred Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the outbreak of war in Gaza, some of them shot dead by settlers.
Earlier this month Mr Biden issued an executive order placing sanctions on four Israeli settlers.
“High levels of extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages, and property destruction have reached intolerable levels,” he said.
Today’s meeting will be the first between Mr Biden and King Abdullah since a drone strike killed three US troops at a base near the JordanSyria border last month.
The attack, which Washington attributed to Tehran-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah, has added to tension between the US and Iran, already heightened amid the Israel-Gaza war.
King Abdullah warned early in the war of possible spillover effects, and said Israeli “intransigence” would be to blame for any regional conflict that may ensue.
A large proportion of Jordan’s 10 million population are of Palestinian origin. Most of them are descended from refugees who entered Jordan during the Arab-Israeli wars in 1948 and 1967.
The king has consistently opposed any Israeli action that may bring about the arrival of more Palestinian refugees in Jordan.
Although King Abdullah has maintained diplomatic ties with Israel, he has voiced unease about efforts to increase Israel’s integration in the region, such as its inclusion in commercial and infrastructure projects.
One of the diplomats told The National that the king “will make it clear to Biden that however electorally tempting it is, there is too much anger in the Arab streets, and this is no time to pursue more normalisation”.