Will West Bank annexation harm US-Jordan security cooperation?
There is too much at stake for Jordan to jeopardize its relations with the United States over Israel's plans to annex parts of the West Bank and the Jordan Valley.
According to the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi stated his objection to any annexation of Palestinian land in a call with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on May 28. The State Department’s readout of the call, by contrast, made no mention of any discussion of the impending Israeli move to annex the Jordan River Valley.
To many in Jordan, the State Department's exclusion of Safadi’s remarks will be seen as a further dismissal of Amman’s security concerns as it greenlights annexation of parts of the West Bank, which Jordan views as a potentially destabilizing action.
“This is an existential threat to Jordan,” Marwan Muasher, former Jordanian foreign minister and previous ambassador to the United States and Israel, told Al-Monitor. “Jordan sees it as the killing of a two-state solution and as solving [the crisis] at Jordan’s expense.”
Jordan’s King Abdullah warned that he is “considering all options” should Israel move forward with its annexation plan, which could certainly “affect the peace treaty,” Jawad Anani, former Jordanian foreign minister and coordinator of the 1994 Israeli-Jordan peace process negotiation team, told Al-Monitor.
