Report: Lapid Met Jordan’s King Abdullah II Last Month

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid met last month with Jordan’s King Abdullah II at his palace in Amman, according to a Channel 12 report on Motzoei Shabbos.

Channel 12 reported the pair reportedly discussed recent tensions at Har HaBayis, as well as clashes at Har HaBayis in May that ignited Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.

Lapid and Abdullah also discussed strengthening of relations between the neighboring countries that established diplomatic ties in 1994 as part of a peace treaty signed at the White House.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett this summer reportedly held a secret meeting with the head of the Hashemite royal family, marking the first talks between an Israeli prime minister and the King of Jordan in more than five years.

President Yitzchak Herzog revealed earlier this month that he had also met secretly with Abdullah. At the meeting, held at the King’s invitation, the two discussed strategic and geopolitical issues including the effects of climate change on the Middle East.

Lapid was also in Jordan in July for a meeting with Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi where they reached agreements on trade and water cooperation.

In a pre-recorded speech to the United Nations General Assembly last week, the Jordanian king called for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying that “the current situation is simply unsustainable.”