Israel Requests Consultations With Jordan Over Modifications To Peace Treaty

The Israeli government has sent a formal request to Jordan to begin consultations over Amman’s move last month to cancel an annex in the peace treaty between the two states. King Abdullah II announced that he would not renew a 25-year lease allowing Israeli farmers to access two plots of land—Naharayim in the north and Tzofar in the south (known as Baqura and Ghamr, respectively, in Arabic)—which were ceded to the kingdom as part of the landmark 1994 accord. In response, a Jordanian official stressed that Amman was acting in accordance with its legal rights but that it was nonetheless open to discussions that “preserve Jordan’s national interests.” Many analysts have attributed Abdullah’s decision to a growing public pressure campaign on the royal family, manifest in a series of nation-wide anti-regime protests over the past year. Ironically, the dust-up comes as Egyptian President Abdel al-Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday affirmed that “the [1979] peace agreement with Israel is stable and permanent,” and claimed that most Egyptians support the treaty. His comments at the World Youth Forum 2018 were made as Khaled Azmi, Cairo’s new ambassador to Israel, arrived in the Jewish state. The diplomat, who previously served as the head of the counter-terrorism department in Egypt’s Foreign Ministry, is slated to present his credentials to President Reuven Rivlin on Thursday.