A senior diplomat says Amman’s priority is to put an end to “Israeli barbarity in Gaza”, which can no longer be considered self-defense.
Jordan has said it will not sign a deal to supply Israel with energy in exchange for water – a deal that was expected to be ratified last month.
“We had a regional dialogue on regional projects. I think all this…, the war (has) proven it, (it) will not continue,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told Tel Aviv Tribune on Thursday, referring to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
“We will no longer sign this agreement. Can you imagine a Jordanian minister sitting next to an Israeli minister to sign a water and electricity deal, while Israel continues to kill children in Gaza? » asked the highest diplomat in Jordan, a country bordering Israel to the east.
Jordan and Israel have had a fragile peace deal since 1994, which returned some 380 km (236 miles) of Jordan’s occupied land to Israeli control and resolved long-running water disputes.
“We (Jordan) signed the peace agreement in 1994 as part of a broader Arab effort to establish a two-state solution. This was not achieved. Instead, Israel failed to uphold its side of the deal. The peace agreement will therefore have to remain on the back burner and gather dust for the time being,” he said.
All of Jordan’s efforts were focused on ending what Safadi described as Israel’s “barbaric reprisals” in Gaza.
“Israel’s aggression and crimes (in Gaza) can no longer be justified as self-defense. He killed innocent civilians and attacked hospitals,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“If any other state had done a fraction of what Israel is doing now, we would have seen sanctions imposed on it from every corner of the globe,” he added.
This month, Jordan announced it was “immediately” recalling its ambassador to Israel in response to the war in Gaza, accusing Israel of creating an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.”
Safadi said Jordan would never engage in dialogue over who would rule Gaza after the war, saying such a move could be seen as a green light for Israel to do whatever it wants.
“If the international community wants to talk about it, it must stop the war now,” he added.
Jordan, like other Arab and Muslim countries, strongly condemned the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in which more than 11,600 people were killed, including more than 4,700 children. Israel also launched a ground offensive and restricted the enclave’s water, food and electricity supplies.
Safadi spoke as the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, warned of a “deliberate attempt to strangle” its operations in the Gaza Strip and said it was at risk of ending all its humanitarian work due to a lack of fuel.
Israel cut off fuel deliveries to the Gaza Strip as part of a “full siege” of the area after Hamas fighters from Gaza launched an attack on southern Israel on October 7, killing around 1 200 people, according to Israeli authorities.
