Jordan and Kuwait leaders urge UN Security Council to impose ceasefire in Gaza
Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Meshal called for a ceasefire in Gaza during talks in Amman yesterday.
Sheikh Meshal arrived in Jordan on Tuesday for an official visit, his first to the kingdom since becoming Kuwait’s ruler last year.
The King and Crown Prince Hussein received Sheikh Meshal upon his arrival at Marka military airport in Amman.
The leaders “affirmed the need for the international community, especially the Security Council, to issue a resolution imposing a ceasefire in Gaza”, they said in a statement.
Such a resolution must also “protect civilians and guarantee humanitarian aid delivery in all possible ways”.
The King and Sheikh Meshal “reject what could lead to the expansion of the war, and the land assaults on Rafah”.
Israel says a large number of Hamas fighters are based in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city.
The two men also discussed “current developments”.
King Abdullah “warned about the danger of the latest escalation, which could push the region into a state of insecurity and instability”, the Jordanian Royal Palace said, apparently referring to the recent exchange of direct attacks between Israel and Iran.
About 64,000 Jordanians live and work in Kuwait, which is a major investor in the kingdom.
Kuwaiti Finance Minister Anwar Al Mudhaf and Foreign Minister Abdullah Al Yahya accompanied Sheikh Meshal on the visit.
Kuwait is among the six GCC countries that have been co-ordinating diplomatic moves on Gaza, while each maintaining its own position on the conflict.
The war began with the Hamas-led October 7 attacks that killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel.
Since then, more than 34,200 people have been killed in Gaza, the enclave’s Health Ministry says.
Jordan, which has maintained a peace treaty with Israel since 1994, has strongly criticised the country for its conduct during the Gaza war.
Officials in Amman have also warned against enabling the war to spill over into the occupied West Bank, which could lead to another wave of Palestinian refugees entering the kingdom.
Much of Jordan’s 10 million population is made up of the descendents of Palestinian refugees who fled after the creation of Israel in 1948 and during the 1967 ArabIsraeli War.