Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud is bailing out his fellow monarch, Jordan’s King Abdullah, from a crisis the Saudis helped create. Whatever the Saudis' timing or motives, they are doing the right thing as Jordan’s stability is crucial to the region.

Salman convened a summit in Mecca on June 10 with Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and Vice President of the United Arab Emirates Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum to address Jordan’s financial crisis and the demonstrations it has produced. The crisis has already toppled the Jordanian prime minister. Abdullah brought his son Crown Prince Hussein to the summit, presumably for a crash course in Arab summit politics.

At the summit, a $2.5 billion five-year aid program was agreed on, but many of the details are not available yet. This is roughly half the aid Jordan has been receiving from the Gulf states. Following the Arab Spring, the Saudi king led the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to agree to provide $5 billion in grant aid to Jordan over five years beginning in 2012, of which the Saudis contributed $2 billion. The package ended in 2017. Roughly 1 million Jordanian citizens living in GCC member states send home over $2 billion annually.

Jordan faces huge economic challenges, with many refugees from Palestine, Iraq and Syria in the country. With few natural resources, Jordan has long been dependent on outside benefactors including the United States and the European Union. The halt in the aid package last year played a critical role in creating the conditions for the current protests in Jordan; uncertainty about Saudi and Gulf aid has not been helpful to create confidence in Jordan’s finances.