Jordan’s King Abdullah II said, “Jerusalem for the Kingdom of Jordan and for his Hashemite family has never been a political matter, but rather it is linked to them personally”.
President Biden will host Jordan’s King Abdullah II for a private lunch at the White House on Thursday, a spokesperson for the National Security Council confirmed to Axios.
This came in the keynote address delivered by the King at the 71st National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC on Thursday.
“More than 100 years ago, we carried the Hashemite Custodianship Trust over Islamic and Christian holy places in Jerusalem,” he said, recalling the martyrdom of his grandfather, Abdullah bin Al-Hussein I, on the threshold of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the survival of his late father, Al-Hussein, from that incident, and the impact of that day on him which made him devote his entire life to working to achieve peace, “even during his struggle with cancer”.
He pointed to “Jordan’s continued insistence on working for peace,” stressing that “there is always an opportunity for peace”.
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“The truth is that the various peoples of the Middle East have lived throughout their history in harmony for much longer periods than they spent in rivalry,” he said, referring to “spaces for constructive dialogue, such as the National Prayer Breakfast, which brings together intellectual and political leaders of different religions and beliefs, as one of the important initiatives to achieve this, by promoting mutual respect and human dignity”.
On 26 October, 1994, Jordan and Israel signed the Wadi Araba Treaty.
In March 2013, King Abdullah II and Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, signed an agreement giving Jordan the right to “guardianship and defence of Jerusalem and Muslim and Christian sanctities” in Palestine.
Abdullah’s last visit to the White House in May 2022 also took place amid rising tensions in Jerusalem.
Driving the news: The Jordanian Royal Court said the talks between the king and Biden will cover ways “to bolster the strategic partnership between Jordan and the U.S. through expanding cooperation across various sectors.”
The Royal Court also said the king will discuss with Biden the latest regional developments connected to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the importance of the U.S. role in urging calm in the region.
The big picture: The ramifications of the Ukraine crisis in the Middle East will also be discussed.
The economic crisis in Jordan has been exacerbated by rising oil and grain prices due to the war in Ukraine.
State of play: On Tuesday, Abdullah met with congressional leaders, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and thanked them for U.S. financial aid to Jordan.
According to a statement by the Royal Court, the king stressed the need to restore calm in the West Bank and stop further escalation.
Last week, the king hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Amman. It was the first meeting between the two leaders, whose relationship had been strained when Netanyahu was last in power, since June 2018.
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