The Jordanian government is considering whether to renew a 25-year “special regime” — under an annex of the 1994 peace treaty between Jordan and Israel — set to expire in 2019. This agreement gives Israel private landownership rights and property interests in the Baqoura area under Jordan’s sovereignty. However, former Prime Minister and chief peace negotiator Abdel Salam al-Majali delivered a shocker in a TV interview March 20. The former premier stated that lands in the Baqoura area, which Israel calls Naharayim, are in fact privately owned by Jews. Majali told Al-Urdun Al-Youm TV station that while Jordan has sovereignty over the area, the land in Baqoura was registered to Jewish owners back in 1926. He said the area was under Israeli occupation and was returned to Jordan, which did not lease it to Israel since it is private property.

The revelations reverberated across the Hashemite Kingdom with Lower House deputies expressing outrage. Two days before Majali’s interview, 20 deputies signed a petition calling on the government not to renew what for the last 24 years has been described as a lease, which covers Baqoura, along the Jordan River, and al-Ghamr in Wadi Araba.

It took the government a few days to respond to the controversy. On March 25, Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi responded to a question in parliament on the issue by confirming that while Baqoura was “privately owned by Israelis since 1926” Jordan maintains sovereignty over the territory, along with al-Ghamr in Wadi Araba. He said that the decision to renew “the lease” or not belongs to the government, which will make the decision “in accordance to the kingdom’s highest national interest.”

But Safadi’s response only added fuel to the fire. Former Minister of Justice Mohammad al-Hammouri fired back March 26 by telling Jo24.net news site that the terms "Israel" and "Israelis" did not exist in 1926. “If the sale did take place then, the deed would have been registered under the names of foreign nationals and that does not affect Jordan’s full sovereignty over the land,” he said. “Baqoura is as Jordanian as Amman and Irbid and under the constitution, the government cannot cede an inch of its territory.”