Jordan's King Abdullah to meet Abbas in Ramallah to discuss peace talks

Jordan's King Abdullah to meet Abbas in Ramallah to discuss peace talks
Jordan's King Abdullah II will meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday in his first visit to the occupied West Bank in five years.
1 min read
05 August, 2017
It is King Abdullah's first visit to the occupied West Bank in five years. [Getty]

Jordan's King Abdullah II will meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday in his first visit to the occupied West Bank in five years.

Senior Fatah official Mohammed Shtayyeh told AFP that the two leaders would discuss efforts to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which has stalled since 2014.

The visit comes amid a recent crisis at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound which saw weeks of deadly clashes and a diplomatic crisis with Jordan, the custodian of Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem.

Jordan reportedly donated $1.4 million to the Islamic Waqf in Jerusalem last week in a show of support for the institution, which played a leading role in mass protests that eventually forced Israel to remove new security measures at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

During the height of the crisis, an Israeli security guard shot dead two Jordanians in Israel's Amman embassy.

Thousands of Jordanians have held protests since the killings to call on their government to close the embassy, expel Israel's ambassador, and end a 1994 peace treaty with the country.

Jordan and Egypt are the only two Arab governments that have signed a peace treaty with Israel and established full diplomatic relations.