Jordanian Foreign Minister: We Will Not Renegotiate Lease on Lands With Israel

TEL AVIV – Jordan has refused to negotiate with Israel to renew two annexes to its 1994 peace treaty that saw the Jewish state take out a 25-year lease on two small agricultural areas along the border, the Jordanian Foreign Minister said Monday night.

“We will not negotiate over the sovereignty of these areas,” Safadi Ayman said of Naharayim and Tzofar, whose leases expire next year.

King Abdullah II said on Sunday that the plots of land would return to Jordan.

“We are practicing our full sovereignty on our land,” Abdullah said. “Our priority in these regional circumstances is to protect our interests and do whatever is required for Jordan and the Jordanians.”

In response to Abdullah, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “Jordan has reserved the option to reclaim the area in Naharayim near the Jordan River and the Tzofar enclave in the Arava. We were told today that it seeks to exercise this option in the 25th year.”

“We will go into negotiations with them on the option of extending the existing agreement,” the prime minister said.

Netanyahu stressed, “There’s no doubt that in a general outlook, the entire treaty is a valuable asset, important to both countries.”

He added that the treaties with both Jordan and Egypt “are main anchors of regional stability.”

But Safadi said Israel had so far not made its intention to negotiate clear, but in any case Jordan is not interested in renewing the lease.

“We have so far not received any official request to open talks,” he said, “but if we do open talks, the only question will be how we cancel these leased areas.”

The move is likely the result of Jordanian protests in recent months calling on the Hashemite Kingdom to regain all of its sovereign territory. Eighty Jordanian parliamentarians also signed a petition urging the government to cancel the agreement with Israel.

Saleh al-Armouti, a Jordanian lawmaker who regularly criticizes the king, praised the move as “a positive step that restores dignity to the Jordanian citizen and sovereignty over his land.”