Analysis: Meeting between Mahmoud Abbas and King Abdullah of Jordan

The Palestinian Authority leader felt a need to coordinate issues with Jordan, after Egypt drifted towards Hamas and took steps to establish Hamas as the main address for Gaza.

BY PINHAS INBARI, JNS  (Dec 25, 2018 / The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)

On Dec. 18, Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas met with King Abdullah II of Jordan in Amman. According to sources in Ramallah, the main reason for the meeting was a request from Abbas to the Jordanian king to help him with his efforts to prevent Hamas from solidifying its separation from the West Bank and to reinforce Abbas’s position that Ramallah is the only address for both Gaza and the West Bank.

These sources claim that King Abdullah listened to Abbas and supported his position. However, the king asked the P.A. leader not to rush to take further steps against Hamas.

Abbas felt a need to coordinate this issue with Jordan after Egypt drifted towards Hamas and took steps to establish Hamas as the main address for Gaza. On this issue, Egypt’s policy was closer to that of Qatar and Israel rather than that of Ramallah.

Both Jordan and the PA face domestic protests

But this is only one of a number of complex issues faced by both Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.

Perhaps the most important of these issues is the growing unrest in Amman and Ramallah caused by economic pressures. Just prior to the recent Hamas terror operations in the Ramallah district, an increasing number of protests were held in the center of Ramallah against the new P.A. social-security legislation. The same phenomenon is also apparent in Amman, where demonstrations are now taking place on a daily basis. Until recently, such action was mostly confined to the Bedouin periphery.

While they can’t help each other very much in practical terms, Abbas and King Abdullah can at least brainstorm together on ways to meet these challenges.

Abdullah kept Abbas waiting for three days in Amman

At the same time, Abbas was in the Jordanian capital for three days before he received an invitation to meet with King Abdullah, which may indicate that not everything is smooth between the two leaders.

This did not go unnoticed in east Jerusalem. According to sources there, Jordan does not like the aggressive course of action that Abbas has taken against Israel in Jerusalem. Here, King Abdullah is more concerned that the aggressive stance of the new Fatah leadership is also directed against Jordan’s interests, and the old Jordanian establishment has been put under pressure by the extra fervor of the new Fatah activists.

According to Ramallah sources, Abbas spent time in Amman to align his strategy with Palestinian National Council (PNC) speaker Salim Zanoun about convening a new session of the PNC in Ramallah after the originally scheduled session was delayed. This delay was caused by the unwillingness of other “organizations” to participate in decisions to issue further punitive resolutions against Hamas. Yet while they refrained from attending the PNC meeting in Ramallah, in Gaza these organizations solidified their relations with Hamas.

Jordan and the PLO share several joint interests that require their mutual cooperation. Abbas told Zanoun that Jordan needs to remain in a stable situation because the stability of the East Bank contributes to stability on the West Bank, and vice versa.

Is Saudi Arabia seeking a presence at Al-Aqsa mosque?

Another important point of shared concern is the improving relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia that may eventually lead to Israel allowing Saudi Arabia a presence at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.

I do not believe that Saudi Arabia is interested in getting involved, but some time ago, a Waqf employee expressed concern about this to me. The Waqf truly believes that Saudi Arabia is going to have a presence in Jerusalem, and they want to coordinate on how to meet this challenge, whether it is true or not.

Another looming issue for both is U.S. President Trump’s policy towards Palestinian refugees. If Palestinian refugees lose their refugee status at the United Nations, the PLO’s raison d’être will disappear. At the same time, the danger of compelling Jordan to absorb the refugees, granting them full citizenship, will tip the demographic balance in that country against the interests of the Bedouin.

Although the situation in Gaza was the ostensible reason for Abbas’s request to meet with King Abdullah, the agenda for their meeting included other crucial issues that deeply affect both of them.

December 28, 2018 | 2 Comments »

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  1. This following article, from an Abu Dhabi newspaper published on December 13, suggests that the recent demonstrations in Jordan are not openly and avowedly directed against the king:

    Taylor Luck
    Taylor Luck
    December 13, 2018

    Jordanian protesters don yellow vests as demonstrations spread
    Government accuses ‘opposition abroad’ of inciting unrest
    Jordanian demonstrators take part in a protest against tax hikes in Amman on November 30, 2018. Reuters
    Jordanian demonstrators take part in a protest against tax hikes in Amman on November 30, 2018. Reuters
    Protesters in Jordan have begun wearing yellow vests as demonstrations over high unemployment and the economy spread outside the capital and the government accused opposition forces outside the country of inciting the unrest.

    On Wednesday night dozens of young men wore yellow vests during a protest in the port city of Aqaba, about 320 kilometres south of Amman, recalling the yellow-vest protest movement in France.

    “All of the young men across the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan want to work so they can help the state,” one yellow-vested protester told Al Ghad newspaper in a video published on line.

    “Women and men are stuck at home without work, there is unemployment, what can we do? That is what is driving us to the streets.”

    “We are exploding,” another protester said. “For God’s sake, just employ us!”

    Also on Wednesday evening, dozens of protesters in yellow vests used burning tyres to block the main road in the village of Taybeh, 100km north of Amman.

    The demonstrations marked the first time that the two-week-old youth protest movement spread outside Amman. The protests that began in late November were ostensibly triggered by the recent passage of an unpopular income-tax law and high unemployment. More protests were expected at the prime minister’s office on Thursday evening.

    Unions and political parties have maintained their distance from the leaderless protest movement, with the Jordan Engineers Association issuing a statement Wednesday to deny it had called on members to take part.

    The Jordanian government on Thursday said opposition forces outside the kingdom were trying to “distort the internal situation for agendas not in the nation’s interests”, and warned against “taking advantage of the freedom of expression to incite chaos”.

    In a press conference, government spokeswoman Jumana Ghunaimat accused “opposition abroad” of calling for a constitutional monarchy in Jordan and stirring up protests.

    “We must pay attention to those who try to distort the civilised image of protests in Jordan and push it towards a suspicious path that harms the homeland, its security and stability,” Ms Ghunaimat said.

    “This suspicious scene is linked to the tens of those who call themselves the ‘opposition abroad’ and Jordanians should be aware of this.”

    She said the government was aware of the difficult economic climate and that the government and King Abdullah were following up on Jordanians’ living conditions.

    “The state is not far from what is going on in the street and his majesty the king is fully aware of what the people are suffering from,” Ms Ghunaimat said, noting that the government is looking to “strengthen political reform” alongside economic policy.

    _______________

    Read more:

    Young people take to Amman’s streets against new tax law and corruption

    Queen Rania calls on Arab social media influencers to use popularity for good

    Two Jordanian journalists face prison for offensive image of Jesus and Salt Bae

    _______________

    Despite government claims, the protests include residents of the capital as well as distant provinces and disparate groups ranging from pro-monarchists to tribalists and Islamists. But they have been unanimous in calling for a change in economic policy and the creation of jobs.

    In their speeches, chants and interviews they have not espoused a political agenda or opposition to the king, but rather a rethink of recent austerity measures and the economic policies that they claim have led to a sell-off of the country’s assets, the accumulation of $38 billion in public debt, and record unemployment.

    Ms Ghunaimat confirmed that authorities have released several protesters detained this week who did not have other outstanding criminal cases.

    The unemployment rate in Jordan stands at 18.6 per cent overall, but is estimated to be higher than 30 per cent among Jordanians between the ages of 15 and 35.

    The government, which faces a projected $911 million budget deficit for 2019 and a current debt level of more than 95 per cent of GDP, says the income tax law is essential to meet conditions for continued financial support from the International Monetary Fund.

    Updated: December 13, 2018 07:20 PM

  2. I have been searching the recent bulletins from Meir Amit Intelligence and Counter-terrism Center web site, looking for recent articles about the political situation in Jordan. There have been almost none over the past year. One would think the Israeli Intelligence agencies would be closely monitoring the internal political situation in Jordan if it looked like regime change was immanent there. The absence of articles about Jordan’s internal politics on Israel main although unofficial intelligence agencies” we site would seem to suggest that they are not expecting any dramatic developments in Jordan, like the overthrow of the king, anytime soon.