Pence’s Mideast visit puts Egypt and Jordan in bind
Trump’s decision on Jerusalem raises tensions in region
CAIRO — Vice President Mike Pence’s upcoming visit to the Middle East comes at a time of publicized friction between his administration and the Palestinian leadership, posing a dilemma for his Arab hosts — Egypt’s president and Jordan’s king — on how to safeguard their vital ties with Washington without appearing to ignore Palestinian misgivings.
Both countries are dependent on U.S. military and economic aid, and talks with a senior Trump administration official like Pence offer them an opportunity to strengthen those ties.
It’s a tall order given that Pence is visiting at a time of rising anti-U.S. sentiments in the region, stoked by President Donald Trump’s recognition of contested Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The city is home to major Muslim sites, along with Christian and Jewish shrines, and its Israeli-annexed eastern sector is sought by the Palestinians as the capital of a future state.
Pence departs Friday and will arrive Saturday in Egypt. He’ll travel to Jordan on Sunday and then will spend two days in Israel, according to the White House.
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, who has openly cursed Trump over his Jerusalem decision, showed just how deep the gap is between him and the United States after Trump’s decision.
Addressing a Cairo conference Wednesday, he repeated that Washington removed itself from its role as an honest peace broker. He added: “Jerusalem will be a gate for peace only if it is Palestine’s capital, and it will be a gate of war, fear and the absence of security and stability, God forbid, if it is not.”
Pence was to have visited the region in mid-December, but rescheduled as Trump’s dramatic policy shift on Jerusalem just a few days earlier triggered Arab condemnation.
At the time, Abbas said he would not receive Pence in the biblical city of Bethlehem, as originally planned, and the spiritual leaders of Egypt’s Muslims and Orthodox Christians — Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam Ahmed alTayeb and Tawadros II respectively — also canceled their meetings with him.
The U.S.-Palestinian crisis has escalated since, with Abbas publicly attacking Trump this week over what he fears is an emerging U.S. plan to propose a Palestinian ministate in only some of the land Israel captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and without a foothold in Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration on Tuesday said it was reducing funding to a U.N. aid agency serving millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants, blaming the Palestinians for lack of progress in Mideast peace efforts.
Egypt’s president, AbdelFattah el-Sissi, reassured Abbas on Wednesday of Cairo’s continued efforts to secure an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital, according to a statement by presidential spokesman Bassem Radi. That may in part have been designed to put to rest the fallout from a New York Times report last week which claimed that while Egypt publicly condemned Trump’s Jerusalem decision, it privately supported the move.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II faces a particular conundrum, as U.S.-Palestinian ties deteriorate. Palestinians make up a large segment of his country’s population.
His dynasty largely derives its political legitimacy from its historic role as custodian of Jerusalem’s main Muslim shrine, the Al-Aqsa mosque, which is Islam’s third holiest site. Any perceived threats to Muslim claims to the city, such as Trump’s shift on Jerusalem, undermine its vital role there.
Over the years, Abdullah has tried to soften continued domestic opposition to Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel, struck by his father in 1994.
Jordan is the recipient of $1.5 billion in 2015 and $1.6 billion last year in U.S. aid, partially given to fund humanitarian assistance and help Jordan shoulder the burden of hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria and Iraq.
Jordan, with its deteriorating economy and rising unemployment, is bracing for the fallout from the cuts in U.S. funding for the U.N. agency that has for decades provided education, health and welfare services to some 5 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants.