Jordanian FM: Arab States Will Provide Security for Israel

Arab states will provide Israel with security protection against Hamas and Fatah if Israel agrees to a full withdrawal from lands liberated in the Six Day War, Jordanian Foreign Minister Iman Al-Safdieh said in a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov. Al-Safdieh made the comments days before Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas was set to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington.

Abbas met on Sunday with Jordan’s King Abdullah, and the two discussed arguments Abbas plans to present before President Trump. The two agreed that the two-state solution, which entails the establishment of an Arab state in Yehudah, Shomron, and most of Yerushalayim, is the only solution that could be considered for the Middle East conflict. The meeting with Abdullah Sunday followed one on Saturday with Egyptian head of state Al-fatah a-Sisi, where the two made the same declaration.

Neither Fatah nor Hamas, the two groups that would administer his new Arab state, recognize Israel’s right to exist, however – and it is in response to that concern that Al-Safdieh made his comments. “If Israel wants to live in peace with the Arabs it must withdraw from all the lands it occupied in 1967,” he said. “If this happens, the Arab states will provide security commitments for Israel.”

Abbas has spoken with President Trump on the phone once, at the end of March. According to media reports, the two discussed the importance of the two-state solution, and President Trump promised that he would actively promote negotiations between Israel and the PA. The conversation took place just before President Trump met with Abdullah and a-Sisi, both of whom encouraged President Trump to meet with Abbas.

According to reports, the two, along with Abbas, are promoting a version of the Saudi peace plan, which would entail a mass release of terrorists by Israel, and a building freeze. At a cabinet meeting before Pesach, however, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told ministers that he had reached understandings with the Trump administration on construction – and those understandings did not entail a freeze.