Israel’s Mansour Abbas, Jordan’s King Abdullah Meet in Amman

The leader of the Israeli political party Ra’am-United Arab List, Mansour Abbas, met in Amman with King Abdullah II of Jordan, Jordanian and Israeli media reported on Tuesday.

Jordan officially approached Abbas to arrange a meeting a month ago, Israel’s N12 reported. The news station said that Abbas did not make the trip until  Prime Minister Naftali Bennett approved the meeting. The two men discussed a number of issues related to Israeli-Jordanian relations, the Middle East and the Palestinian issue during the four-hour meeting, according to reports.

The official Jordanian news agency said in a statement that “King Abdullah, in his meeting with the Minister of Ra’am, emphasized the importance of striving for peace between Israel and the Palestinians on the basis of a two-state solution within the 1967 borders, and the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

The Israeli government reportedly expressed concern about the political nature of the discussion. The Kan public broadcaster later reported, citing the Jordanian Royal Chamber of Deputies, that Abbas and the king “did not have a political conversation, it was an introductory meeting.” The report also said that Abbas updated Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid on what they discussed at the meeting.

Ra’am is the first Israeli Arab party to join an Israeli government coalition.