Israel and Jordan continue to normalize their relations, according to the foreign ministries of the two countries. In light of agreements between the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and Israel’s apparent rapprochement with Saudis, Jordanian express concern.
Earlier, the Jordanian side has asked for the meeting in order to discuss some practical matters like a border crossing. The list of issues that came up in the meeting was quite long, Al-Monitor has learned.
On Friday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi met on Friday with his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi. The two top diplomats have talked about “a number of pending concerns, including water, lifting restrictions on Jordanian exports to the West Bank, Jordanian provision of additional electricity to the Palestinian Authority and organizing movement through border crossings in light of their closure due to the coronavirus pandemic,” according to the Jordanian foreign ministry’s statement.
Temple Mount compound was in agenda
In addition, Safadi raised with Ashkenazi an issue of the Temple Mount compound (Haram al-Sharif). According to the 1994 peace deal between the countries, and with the agreement of the Palestinians, the site is administrated by the Waqf Muslim religious authorities, under Jordanian custodianship. As such, Amman has a special role and control over the holy place.
Since 2018, Turkish President Erdogan has made several statements about Jerusalem, raising some fears in Amman about Turkey’s ambitions with regard to the Temple Mount and Jerusalem.
Taking that fact in the account, the political analysts say Amman worries about an Israeli-Saudi deal where Riyadh would agree to normalization in exchange for some hold over the Temple Mount compound.
Meantime, France and Germany discussed with Egyptian and Jordanian representatives an initiative for relaunching the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Once theUS President-elect takes Oval Office, the EU might bring this idea up again in agenda.
