Jordan's King Abdullah on Sunday met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and both leaders set high hopes that US President-elect Joe Biden would revive peace talks over a two-state solution to the decades-old Arab-Israeli conflict, officials said.
In a palace statement following his meeting with Abbas in the Red Sea port of Aqaba, the monarch said he fully backed Palestinian statehood.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
"His Majesty stressed Jordan stood with all its resources alongside Palestinians in achieving their legitimate rights to set up an independent state," Abdullah was quoted as saying in the statement.
In his first conversation with an Arab leader since his election earlier this month, Biden spoke with King Abdullah last week, telling the monarch that he hopes to cooperate on "supporting a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
In recent months, Abdullah has said Israeli policies and US President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan would lead to conflict.
The Trump administration has reversed decades of US policy on the conflict, refraining from endorsing the two-state solution, the longtime international formula which envisages a Palestinian state co-existing with Israel.
Diplomats say the monarch, a staunch US ally who was among the first Arab leaders to congratulate Biden, saw Trump's backing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as sidelining the kingdom's once pivotal role in Arab-Israeli peacemaking.
Trump's peace plan was also seen as posing an existentialist threat to Jordan with the demise of a Palestinian state through the annexation of large parts of the West Bank pushing the kingdom to become an alternative state for Palestinians.
Jordan, which lost the West Bank including east Jerusalem to Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War, lies at the heart of the conflict with many of its more than 7 million citizens of Palestinian origin.
In another joint communique with Abbas, both leaders asserted that Israel "attempts to impose new realities" by annexing and accelerating settlement building in "occupied" Palestinian territory.
Abbas, who three years ago cut off contact with the Trump administration, accusing it of pro-Israel bias, on Monday was set to head to Cairo to seek its support for a revival of peace talks based on a two-state solution, diplomats said.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
