Apart from the Palestinians, Jordan stands to lose the most from President Donald Trump’s bombshell announcement on Dec. 6 that the United States recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and that it will relocate its embassy there. Jordan's King Abdullah took an accordingly hard-line position denouncing the decision while mobilizing international and regional diplomatic efforts to stand up to it. On Dec. 13, the king told representatives of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at its summit in Istanbul that the US move was “dangerous” and “a threat to peace.” He added that there was “no alternative to Jerusalem as the key to ending the historical conflict in the Middle East.”
Jordan was quick to react after Trump announced his decision, calling for an emergency meeting of the Arab League’s foreign ministers in Cairo on Dec. 9. Its own foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, announced that Jordan would host an “extraordinary” Arab summit without specifying a date. Safadi called US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Dec. 11 to present Jordan’s point of view and traveled to Brussels to meet with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Dec. 12. Mogherini urged support for Abdullah as “the custodian of Jerusalem’s holy places,” calling him a “very wise man.”
The king had traveled to the Saudi capital Riyadh on Dec. 12 to meet King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud. The two leaders discussed the ramifications of the US decision on regional security and stability, as well as on peace efforts, according to a royal court statement in Amman. The king had also discussed the US move in separate telephone calls with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Jordan’s diplomatic offensive to confront the US decision, which it described as “illegal,” underlines its growing concern over the fate of the two-state solution, which had become a cornerstone of its national security policy. It sees Trump’s move as pre-judging the future of occupied East Jerusalem, which is one of the major issues in the final status negotiations. It also sees the move as pre-empting purported efforts by the Trump administration to reach a final settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.
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