AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah’s summit meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed
bin Salman, who arrived to Amman on Tuesday, will focus on consolidating
political ties and promoting economic integration to face regional and global
challenges.
اضافة اعلان
The summit precedes a planned visit by US President
Joe Biden to the Middle East, with stops in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, which
maintained lukewarm relations with Biden following his electioneering pledge to
make the oil-rich kingdom an international “pariah”.
But Russia’s war on Ukraine caused a record rise in
fuel prices internationally, especially in the US, forcing Biden to reverse his
stance and schedule a visit to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Ambassador
Nayef Al-Sudairy said Bin Salman’s visit underlines the close relations between
the two neighboring countries and contributes to achieving the goals of the
Saudi Vision 2030 and Jordan’s Economic Modernization Vision, Al-Mamlaka TV
reported.
The visit promotes the concept of common security and joint destiny,
Senate Speaker Faisal Al-Fayez said the visit is
“highly significant” because it aims at “unifying efforts and working together
to face the ramifications of Russia’s war in Ukraine on the Arab nation and the
Arab food security”, according to Al-Mamlaka.
“The visit promotes the concept of common security
and joint destiny,” Fayez said. He stressed that Jordan “considers Saudi Arabia
its strategic depth and Saudi Arabia regards Jordan its strategic depth.”
Mohammad Al-Momani, a former minister of state for
media affairs, told
Jordan News that the summit will tackle two main
facets: political and economic.
Economically, discussions will focus on investments,
including in the transportation and energy sectors.
Politically, a host of issues will be discussed,
such as the fate of Palestinian-Israeli peacemaking and giving a significant
push to the peace process, regional instability, food security, Iran’s regional
behavior, and the war on terror.
“Jordan and Saudi Arabia will coordinate their
stances and exchange ideas on these matters ahead of the planned visit of the
US president to the region,” Momani said. “Jordan is committed to the national
security of the Arab nation.”
He stressed that Jordan’s relations with its eastern
neighbor is “at its best”.
“Jordan sees eye-to-eye with many of the Saudi
positions, and the Saudis understand the strategic importance of Jordan,” he
explained.
Political Science professor Jamal Al-Shalabi
described the visit of the Saudi crown prince as “historical” and follows a
“critical period of mystery and unappreciation between the two countries”.
“The visit is crucial because it will dissipate all
of the differences and points of views and open a new page built on economic
cooperation and uniting their political positions regarding regional and global
issues,” Shalabi told
Jordan News.
“Now, the Palestinian issue, and the Hashemite custodianship
are on the agenda of talks”, he said. He predicted that the Saudi crown prince
will “confirm that Saudi Arabia respects the Hashemite role in Jerusalem.”
Jordan sees eye-to-eye with many of the Saudi positions, and the Saudis understand the strategic importance of Jordan,
He said other issues expected to figure high in the
talks include the Iranian threat in the region and ways to rehabilitate Syria
back to the Arab League, “so Iran would no longer have a strong influence in
Syria”.
Political analyst Labib Kamhawi told
Jordan News that the visit leans towards economic cooperation, than politics.
“It would be economic more than political, but now
the political dimension is gaining strength,” he said. “The stakes are too
high, the issues involved are too hot to be handled by one state, so the need
to regroup the Arab position and defend Arab interests” prompted the visit
before the Jeddah summit with President Biden.
The crown prince’s visit to Jordan “is long
overdue”, Kamhawi said. “Jordan has been seeking this visit for some time,” he
added.
He said Jordan is worried that the American plans in
the region could play against Jordanian interests. “Therefore, Jordan will be
seeking the support of Saudi Arabia and Egypt to minimize the effect of the
American plans to initiate military cooperation between Israel and some Arab
states,” he said.
“The Arab heads of state are worried that the
Americans might cross some red lines in putting pressure on Arab regimes to
cooperate with Israel’s military, and I believe that the Arab regimes involved
would not like to see themselves as partners with an Israeli military coalition,”
Kamhawi said.
He said the military cooperation between some Arabs
and Israelis already exists, but the “Americans are trying to make it official
and public”, and this “makes the Arab heads of state feel uneasy.”
Political analyst Mohammad Al-Zawahreh told
Jordan
News that the crown prince’s visit would revive the Jordanian-Saudi
relations that were “stiff for some time”.
“The visit will have a positive impact on diplomatic
relation and reviving a socio-economic collaboration,” he projected.
Zawahreh maintained that the visit will have an
economic dimension, where the 2030 Saudi Vision will support the Economic
Modernization Vision of Jordan, since the Saudi vision covers the whole region,
not only Saudi Arabia.
“The Saudi agenda goes along the Jordanian vision, and
Jordan could be part of Saudi projects in the future,” he said.
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