US laments Jordan’s absence from Negev Forum

 

Jordan will be the only Arab country with full diplomatic relations with Israel that will not be sending a delegation to the United Arab Emirates where, for the first time, interagency teams known as working groups will be gathering from the US, Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt to discuss joint regional projects in a variety of fields.

Also Jordan has held firm in its position against joining the Negev Forum so long as the Palestinians will not be participating alongside them — a stance that has led to a dead-end, given the Palestinian Authority’s refusal to openly cooperate with an initiative it views as part of an effort to sideline its cause. 

Advocates of the Negev Forum argue that Jordan only stands to lose by remaining on the sidelines as the regional projects move forward. The US is not giving up on folding the Hashemite kingdom into the collaborative and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised the issue in a phone call with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi on Friday 

In this The senior State Department official said that once the initiatives drafted by the working groups are up and running, the Negev Forum will hold its second ministerial meeting, this time in Morocco, which will be receiving the rotational presidency from previous host Israel. The Morocco ministerial meeting is expected to take place in the first half of 2023, though no date has been set. It will likely be a topic of discussion when the Negev Forum’s steering committee convenes for a third time on the sidelines of the working group gathering in Abu Dhabi this week.