Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Saturday received a telephone call from Israel’s new President Isaac Herzog and they discussed Middle East peace efforts, state-run Petra news agency said.
According to the Associated Press, Abdullah “emphasized the need of working for a just and comprehensive peace” between Israel and the Palestinians “on the basis of the two-state solution.”
The king of Jordan, where 10-million-strong population is of Palestinians, told Herzog that the only way to achieve long-term peace in the area was to establish an independent Palestinian state.
Herzog, who was sworn in as Israel’s president on Wednesday, tweeted that he stressed “the importance of the strategic relations between our countries”.
“I told His Majesty that I intend to work on strengthening the ties,” Herzog added.
The call came two days after Israel and Jordan agreed to sell an unprecedented amount of water to the parched kingdom in exchange for Jordanian exports to Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The two countries announced Saturday that Israel would sell 50 million cubic meters of water.
Herzog’s office said in a statement that Abdullah “expressed his satisfaction after the return of the diplomatic ties between the two countries to their correct path”.
According to reports, the president stated that the two countries’ commercial and tourism relations should be strengthened.
Relations between Jordan and Israel, which have a 1994 peace treaty, grew strained under former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He was barred from using Jordanian airspace earlier this year, stopping him from flying to the United Arab Emirates for the first time.
Netanyahu was replaced last month by Naftali Bennett, whose coalition has set warming ties with Amman as a foreign policy priority.
Jordan is one of the world’s most water-deficient countries and experts say the country has been grappling with one of the most severe droughts in its history.
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