Jordanian King Abdullah said today that his country would participate in the "peace workshop" - the economic committee on the Palestinian issue scheduled for the end of this month in Bahrain. The announcement will be greatly welcomed by the US, because Jordan's participation as a party in the Palestinian socioeconomic discussion is significant. It sends a message to Jordanian and Palestinian businesspeople, who are now also likely to attend. The US administration is having trouble staging the conference, following announcements by a number of Palestinian businesspeople that they would not attend and the absolute opposition by the Palestinian Authority, which broke off contact with official US representatives in December 2017, when US President Trump announced that he was moving the US embassy to Israel to Jerusalem.
The statements by US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman in a "The New York Times" interview several days ago that Israel had the right to sovereignty over the territories has only alienated the Palestinians even more.
In a statement quoted in the Jordanian media, Abdullah added that Jordan's participation was designed to keep Jordan informed about everything that was happening, even if he believed that there would be nothing new in the "Deal of the Century."
The conference, scheduled for June 26 in Bahrain, is designed to invite the ministers of finance and economic officeholders in the countries in the region, in addition to businesspeople. Israel has not yet received an official invitation, and even when this invitation arrives, it is unclear whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will wish to personally attend in order to prevent Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon from leading the Israeli delegation.
The Israeli media seeking to cover the conference are unable to do so at this stage because of problems in entering and obtaining visas to visit Bahrain.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on June 11, 2019
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