Jordan was among the few countries in the region relieved by the outcome of the US presidential election. Until Nov. 3, Amman was preparing for a second Donald Trump administration, and the feeling here was that the kingdom — which relies heavily on US aid and military support — would come under tremendous pressure to conform with Trump’s plan for peace in the Middle East, which he revealed in January. King Abdullah II had ignored the plan and continued to insist that peace between Israel and the Palestinians must be based on the classic two-state solution, which the Trump administration had clearly sidestepped.
Along with the Palestinians themselves, Jordan had much to lose from the Trump peace plan, which came in the wake of a number of steps that Trump had taken since he assumed office, including the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, defunding of the UNRWA, recognition of illegal settlements, and encouraging normalization between Arab states and Israel before resolving the latter’s conflict with the Palestinians contrary to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.
