AMMAN — On Tuesday, the Royal Court announced that
His Majesty King Abdullah is scheduled to meet with
US President Joe Biden at
the White House on Friday. While the strategic partnership between Jordan and
the US was said to be at the forefront discussions, experts interviewed by
Jordan News suggested the latest developments around Al-Aqsa Mosque and
Palestine were likely to top the agenda.
اضافة اعلان
In July 2021, the King was the first Arab leader to
meet Biden since the president took office in January of the same year.
Political analyst and writer Omar Kullab told
Jordan
News that Friday’s meeting sends the message that Jordan is important to the US
administration and is an acknowledgement of the magnitude of the challenges
that Jordan faces regionally and economically.
“Jordan lives within a ring of fire,” he said,
adding that Jordan plays a significant role in regional developments in Iraq,
Syria, and Palestine.
Both parties’ greatest fear regarding
Palestine,
according to Kullab, is that the situation will spiral out of control, i.e. a
collapse of the Palestinian Authority and the resumption of direct
confrontations between Palestinian resistance movements and Israeli occupation
forces.
Both administrations want to “prevent the collapse
of what is left of the PA,” he said.
Kullab was not optimistic about discussions on
Palestine, particularly due to the “legacy Biden inherited from Trump in the
form of the ‘deal of the century’” and the attitude of the incumbent Israeli
government.
He was, however, optimistic about other regional
topics, explaining that “Jordan will be able to effect positive change”
regarding Syria and Iraq.
Labib Kamhawi, also a political analyst and writer,
said the meeting would focus on emphasizing the importance of
Jordanian-US relations and the possibility of exerting pressure on Israel in order to calm
the situation.
Jordan would expect Biden to reiterate support for the Jordanian historical role at Al-Aqsa at a time when the Israeli government is challenging it.
However, he shared Kullab’s lack of optimism
regarding any discussions of Palestine.
“Nothing very important will come out of this visit
regarding Palestine,” he said, unless the US pressure Israel to stop its
actions at Al-Aqsa. He added that Jordan would expect Biden to reiterate
support for the Jordanian historical role at Al-Aqsa at a time when the Israeli
government is challenging it.
For his part, professor of international relations
and conflict management
Hasan Al-Momani stressed the economic, security, and
political importance of Jordan’s strategic relationship with the US.
“There is no doubt that the
Palestinian issue is one
of the most important issues governing the Jordanian-US relationship,” he said.
The US dominates the peace process, he added, and is
the most effective mediator due to its influence on all parties, particularly
Israel.
Momani believed that Palestine and Al-Aqsa would
feature heavily in His Majesty’s meeting with President Biden and added that
“ultimately, Jordan hopes to create conditions for peace negotiations to
resume.”
“(Their) immediate concern is to control the
escalating violence and pressure Israel to stop its ... attempts to alter the
status quo,” he said.
However, Biden has not shown a real interest in tackling the
Palestinian issue since assuming office, according to Momani, and believed it
is not as high a priority for the incumbent administration when compared to
other regional issues such as the negotiations with Iran regarding the nuclear
deal, officially known as the
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and the war
in Ukraine.
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