What a Palestine-Jordan confederation might look like
US President Donald Trump’s inclination toward a regional peace process has driven the Palestinians to create a new formula for a confederation with Jordan.
What stood out in US President Donald Trump’s statement at the joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Feb. 15 was the regional approach to Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. An adviser to the US National Security Council with good ties to the Arab world told Al-Monitor that prior to the Trump-Netanyahu meeting, the administration discussed with Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan a regional umbrella to Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.
The ambitions of the new administration on the Middle East regional level are much more modest compared with the regional initiatives promoted by the Obama administration. Most specifically, they are less ambitious than the regional attempt by former Secretary of State John Kerry to initiate a Jordanian-Egyptian-Israeli regional process. According to the adviser, Trump is interested in cooperation with pragmatic Arab countries in the battle against the Islamic State.
