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Israel rejects ‘confederation’ with Jordan and Palestinians

Following reports that Abbas supports a tripartite Israeli-Palestinian-Jordanian “confederation”, senior Israeli diplomats commented that the Jewish state does not support such a proposal.

By: World Israel News Staff

Senior Israeli diplomats communicated the nation’s position on a plan that Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas claimed the US floated, which would create a Palestinian confederation with Jordan and possibly Israel.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the Israeli diplomats cited stated that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to support a directly negotiated agreement with the Palestinians that provides them with a demilitarized entity, referred to at times as a “state minus,” with the Jewish state continuing to oversee security west of the Jordan River.

Abbas raised the confederation proposal during a meeting with leftist activists from the Peace Now organization and Israeli lawmakers in Ramallah on Sunday, claiming that the Trump administration floated the idea during an August 2017 visit by Trump senior adviser Jared Kushner and US special envoy Jason Greenblatt.

Abbas claimed he reacted positively when the proposal was raised at that time.

“They asked me if I believe in a confederation with Jordan. I said ‘yes, I want a triple confederation with Jordan and with Israel.’ I asked them if Israel would agree to such a proposal,” said Abbas.

On Monday, Jordan’s Minister of State for Information Affairs, Jumana Ghneimat, told Khbarani News, “Jordan’s discussion of the idea of ​​a confederation with [PA-controlled territory in Judea and Samaria] is not possible,” deeming the terms of the plan “not negotiable.”

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Ghneimat also reiterated Jordan’s “consistent and clear” support for the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

While Abbas’ motives mentioning the purported confederation plan at this time remain unclear, his comments arrived just two days after the US announced it was completely defunding the the Palestinians’ dedicated United Nations agency, UNRWA.