The US peace plan announced in the White House Jan. 28 has not only unified the Palestinians, but appears to have cemented Jordanian-Palestinian relations that in the past went through some rocky ups and downs. As he was delivering his scathing criticism to the US plan at the Arab League foreign ministers meeting Feb. 1, President Mahmoud Abbas turned to the Jordanian foreign minister. As he rephrased the plan’s restrictions on Palestinian sovereignty over the crossing points, Abbas looked at Ayman Safadi and commented jokingly using the first name of the minister, “What do you think Ayman, will we need Israeli permission to visit you in Jordan according to this plan?”
Abbas Zaki, a member of the Fatah Central Committee responsible for relations with the Arab world, told Al-Monitor that the Jordanian position to the plan has been great. “Jordan’s position has been great; the official and popular positions have been supportive of Palestinian rights and we appreciate that.”
Lamis Andoni, a veteran Jordanian analyst and former lecturer at the University of California-Berkeley, told Al-Monitor that normally any US Middle East plan often leaves a shadow on relations between Palestinians and Jordanians because the Palestinians worry that the Americans want Jordan to represent the Palestinians due to the fact that pre-1967 Jordan controlled the West Bank. “The United States, however, has brought the two sides together this time. Both sides are very worried, and therefore they need to cooperate because this is a direct threat to both sides,” she said.
Andoni noted that King Abdullah II has made it clear that Jordan will accept only what the Palestinians accept, so the rejection of the Palestinians makes it easy for Jordan to also reject it. “However, this plan — which is not a peace plan but a war plan — will increase pressure on Jordan. Jordan can’t get away totally from the Trump plan if it continues to ward off the pressure; the coming period will be very tense even though so far there are no signs of any cracks between the two leaderships.”
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