Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met secretly with Jordan's King Abdullah II last week, an Israeli official confirmed Thursday, as the two countries announced new agreements on water and trade.
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The agreements, concluded during a meeting between the countries' foreign ministers, signaled improved relations with Israel's new government following years of strained ties under former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Under the deal, Jordan will purchase an additional 50 million cubic meters of water from Israel and increase its exports to Palestinian Authority-controlled areas of the West Bank from $160 million a year to around $700 million, the countries announced in official statements.
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi met at the King Hussein Bridge between Jordan and the West Bank on Thursday.
The deals came in the wake of a secret meeting last week between Bennett and Abdullah in Amman, the Jordanian capital. Bennett took office last month, ending Netanyahu's 12-year rule.
Hebrew-language news site Walla, which broke the story, described the meeting as positive and said the two leaders agreed to open a "new page" in relations. An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter on the record, confirmed the meeting had taken place.
While the Prime Minister's Office refused to comment, it would mark the first meeting between an Israeli prime minister and the king of Jordan in more than five years.
Jordan said technical teams will iron out the details of the trade deal in the coming days, and that talks on implementing the export ceiling will be held among Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian officials.
Safadi called for renewed efforts to achieve a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and for Israel to halt "illegal" measures that undermine such efforts.
He stressed the importance of maintaining the status quo at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on the Temple Mount, a flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem that is under Jordanian custodianship. He also said it would be a "war crime" to evict Palestinian families from their homes in east Jerusalem.
Lapid called Jordan an "important neighbor and partner" and said Israel would work to strengthen ties and expand economic cooperation. He had highlighted the importance of mending fences with Jordan when he took office last month.
"We will broaden economic cooperation for the good of the two countries," Lapid said in a statement.
The United States welcomed the agreements. "It is these kinds of tangible steps that increase prosperity for all and advance regional stability," State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.
Gidon Bromberg, the Israeli director of EcoPeace Middle East, a Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli environmentalist group, said the deal marks a "dramatic increase" in water exports from Israel, which he said had not exported more than 10 million cubic meters per year until now.
He said Jordan still faces a water deficit of 500 million cubic meters a year and would have to import considerably more to ensure a continuous supply for all its needs. Jordan is one of the driest countries on earth and its water shortages are expected to worsen with climate change.
Israel and Jordan made peace in 1994 and maintain close security ties.
Abdullah is set to visit the White House on July 19 and meet with US President Joe Biden. Those talks would be "an opportunity to ... showcase Jordan's leadership role in promoting peace and stability in the region," the White House said.
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