Will Netanyahu meet Jordan’s King Abdullah this week?

Will Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordan’s King Abdullah have a face-to-face meeting in Switzerland this week?

By Margot Dudkevitch, World Israel News

With ties between Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan back on track, efforts are in motion to organize a telephone conversation and possibly a face-to-face meeting between Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and King Abdullah II of Jordan, a Channel Ten news report said.

According to senior officials in Jerusalem, efforts are being made to arrange a meeting during the Economic Summit in Davos, Switzerland, later this week, which both Netanyahu and Abdullah will attend. If successful, it will mark the first meeting between the two leaders in more than two years.

The recent efforts come some six months after a breakdown in ties between the two countries, sparked by the deaths of two Jordanian nationals who were shot by an Israeli security guard at the Israeli Embassy Compound. The guard was acting in self-defense.

In a bid to restore diplomatic ties, Israel apologized to Jordan and reopened its embassy in Amman.

On Saturday Netanyahu thanked US Mideast envoys Jason Greenblatt and Jared Kushner for their “behind the scene efforts to resolve the crisis with Jordan.” The prime minister did not divulge any further details.

However, media reports over the weekend quoted unnamed Jordanian diplomats as saying Israel reportedly paid some $5 million in compensation to Jordan for the death of its two citizens in July and of a Jordanian judge at the Allenby Bridge in 2014. Netanyahu confirmed the payment, saying it was made to the Jordanian government and not to the families.