Jordan's FM speaks to counterparts, warns about sovereignty - Middle East

Jordan’s Foreign Minister, Ayman Safadi, reiterates importance of two-state solution in conversation with US and British counterparts.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister, Ayman Safadi, on Thursday spoke with his American and British counterparts and warned against Israel’s intentions to apply sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria.

Safadi tweeted following his conversation with British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab that he was grateful for the UK’s commitment to a “just peace on the basis of a two-state solution. UK role is key.”

The Jordanian Foreign Minister also told US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that Jordan is against any “Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank” and that direct peace talks on the basis of the two-state solution are the only way to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

The State Department confirmed in a statement that Pompeo had spoken to Safadi, saying the Secretary of State “thanked Foreign Minister Safadi for Jordan’s support and cooperation during COVID-19. Reaffirming the strength of the U.S.-Jordan bilateral partnership, the Secretary and Minister also discussed several matters of mutual interest, including developments in Syria.”

Safadi’s latest conversations come a day after he warned, in a conversation with UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov, that an Israeli move to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria would institutionalize apartheid.

The coalition agreement between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz, which stipulates that the government can apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria this coming July, has caused an uproar in the Arab world.

Jordanian Prime Minister Omar al-Razzaz last week threatened that the kingdom would review its relationship with Israel if the Jewish state goes ahead with the sovereignty move.

Razzaz’s comments came days after Jordan's King Abdullah II warned that if Israel goes through with the sovereignty move, “it would lead to a massive conflict with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan".

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shavuot in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)