Jordan Cancels Parts of «Israel» Treaty: Reorients Alliance towards Turkey, Syria, Qatar
Local Editor
Jordan’s King Abdullah notified the “Israeli” entity on Sunday that he will not renew two annexes of the so-called “peace” treaty which his father King Hussein signed with then “Israeli” Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1994.
They granted the entity “ownership rights” for 25 years under Jordanian sovereignty in the al-Baqura [Naharayim] and the al-Ghamr [Zofar] areas of southern “Israeli” occupied Palestine.
“Al-Baqura and al-Ghamr were at the top of our priorities,” King Abdullah tweeted. “Our decision is to terminate the Baquoura and Ghamar annexes from the ‘peace’ treaty out of our keenness to take all decisions that would serve Jordan and Jordanians."
According to “Israeli” website DEBKAfile, the announcement came two days after a big anti-“Israeli” demonstration in Amman, and that it is part of a calculated move by the Jordanian monarch to bring his kingdom into alignment with Turkey, Syria and Qatar.
It went on to say that in recent days, Jordanian prime minister, Dr. Omar al-Razzaz, has been holding intensive talks with Turkish ministers in an effort to persuade Ankara to stop routing its export goods to the Gulf via Haifa port and send them instead through Syria and Jordan.
To this end, Jordan earlier this month reopened its Nassib border crossing with Syria, against strong objections from Washington and Jerusalem. The king is in the process of mending his ties with Syrian President Bashar Assad and looks forward to an early visit to Amman by an impressive Syrian official delegation headed by Foreign Minister Walid Moallem.
Based on the report by DEBKAfile, Qatar is performing a dual role: on the one hand, Doha is funding “Israeli” fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip in an effort to de-escalate Hamas-“Israeli” tensions, while, on the other, trying to tempt Jordan’s King to come over to its side and abandon his ties with Qatar’s rival, Saudi Arabia.
King Abdullah hopes Riyadh, in its weakened state following the Khashoggi affair, will not notice his desertion.
The DEBKAfile report explained that the two treaty annexes with the entity serves the Jordanian monarch’s evolving alignment with three allies, two of whom are hostile to the “Israeli” entity.
The Jordanian King hopes his new orientation will help channel the rising domestic unrest over his failure to resolve the kingdom’s galloping economic crisis. Muslim Brotherhood activists, led by the Brotherhood’s Palestinian offshoot Hamas, have been stirring up the trouble, demanding abrogation of the so-called “peace” treaty with the entity and the closure of the “Israeli” embassy in Amman.
“Israeli” PM Benjamin Netanyahu reacted to the announcement on Sunday, saying the entity intends to negotiate with Jordan over extending the lease, "There is no doubt the agreement is an important asset," he said at a memorial for the late PM Yitzhak Rabin.
King Abdullah has faced ongoing pressure from the Jordanian parliament not to renew the leases, and to return the territory to full Jordanian sovereignty. Eighty-seven lawmakers have also signed a petition on the matter.
Last Friday, protesters marched in Amman demanding that Jordan reclaim sovereignty over the territories in question, with some demanding Jordan cancel the entire “peace” treaty with the “Israeli” entity.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
