“These are Jordanian lands and they will remain,” the King said. In an “era of regional turmoil” his kingdom – sandwiched between Syria to the north, Iraq to the east and Israel to its west – Jordan wanted to protect its “national interests,” His Majesty King Abdullah (II) said.
AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan’s King His Majesty Abdullah II on Sunday said he has decided not to renew parts of his country’s landmark peace treaty with Israel that allows Israel to use two tracts of territory along its border while Israel said it was still planning to negotiate an extension.
His Majesty King Abdullah released a statement that he intends to pull out of two annexes from the 1994 peace agreement that allowed Israel to lease two small areas, Baqura and Ghamr, from the Jordanians for 25 years. The leases expire next year, and the deadline for renewing them is Thursday.
Much of the land in Baquora in the northwestern part of the kingdom and Ghumar in the south is used by Israeli farmers, some of whom were given private land ownership rights and special travel rights under a 1994 peace treaty between the two countries.
Jordan’s King His Majesty Abdullah II has been under increasing public pressure to end the arrangements with Israel, and told senior Jordanian politicians the kingdom wanted to exercise its “full sovereignty” over the two areas.
“These are Jordanian lands and they will remain,” the King said. In an “era of regional turmoil” his kingdom – sandwiched between Syria to the north, Iraq to the east and Israel to its west – Jordan wanted to protect its “national interests,” His Majesty King Abdullah (II) said.
But Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister, said he wanted to open negotiations to keep the current arrangement in place.
Under the terms of peace treaty, the lease would be automatically renewed unless either of the parties notified the other a year before expiry that it wished to terminate the agreement, the Israeli Foreign Ministry also said in a statement on Sunday.
Jordan is one of only two Arab states that has a peace treaty with Israel and the two countries have a long history of close security ties.
They have also been expanding economic ties in the last year. But the peace treaty with Israel is unpopular and pro-Palestinian sentiment widespread in Jordan.
Activists and politicians have been vocal against a renewal they say prolongs Israeli “occupation” of Jordanian territory.
Jordan’s political ties with Israel have also become strained over the Middle East peace process. An incident last year in which an Israeli security guard killed two Jordanian citizens within the Israeli embassy compound added to the tension.