Jordan - Page 4

TEL AVIV – In a first, Israelis citizens will now be allowed to travel to Saudi Arabia under limited circumstances relating to religion and business, Israel’s interior ministry announced Sunday.

U.S. trained and supplied specialist bomb detecting sniffer dogs will no longer be sent to Jordan and Egypt after several of the animals died due to what U.S. officials say was lack of care and maltreatment.

American taxpayers are once again being forced to subsidize border security measures in the Middle East as part of the latest government spending bill.

After touching down on five different continents playing shows in recent years, British rockers Coldplay announced they will not schedule a tour for their new album because doing so would be harmful to the environment.

King Abdullah II of Jordan addressed the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday with a speech consisting largely of rhetorical questions designed to stress the importance of global issues such as climate change, economic disparities, terrorism, and especially the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which he said can only be resolved by giving the Palestinians their own state.

TEL AVIV – A senior Palestinian official accused Israel and the U.S. of a joint conspiracy to “bring down” the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, which included leaking an internal United Nations ethics report alleging corruption, sexual misconduct and mismanagement at the highest levels of the agency.

An internal ethics report has alleged mismanagement and abuses of authority at the highest levels of the special U.N. agency for Palestinian “refugees” one year after the Trump administration suspended a $125 million contribution to its work.

President Donald Trump quietly vetoed Wednesday three resolutions passed by Congress to end arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf nations.

TEL AVIV – The parents of a 15-year-old girl who was killed in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem in 2001 are calling on Congress to investigate why the terrorist behind the attack – Hamas’ first ever female jihadist – remains free in Jordan with her family and has not been extradited to the U.S.

The Republican-led Senate voted Thursday to block the Trump administration’s proposed $8.1 billion arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other allied countries.

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — On a high school trip to Jordan’s ancient city of Petra, a group of teenagers sneak out at night to drink beer, smoke weed and gossip around a bonfire. A girl asks her frisky boyfriend to take things slow.

TEL AVIV – Egypt, Jordan and Morocco have accepted the U.S.’s invitation to attend a peace summit in Bahrain later this month, the White House said Tuesday.

Film industry giants Disney and Netflix are threatening to boycott the state of Georgia over its new “heartbeat” abortion law, but have continued and even stepped up filming in countries in which abortion is entirely illegal or highly restricted.

Pompeo said a newly-announced $8 billion in arms sales to Middle East allies would help protect their and America’s interests against Iran.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II cancelled a visit Monday to Romania after its prime minister vowed to move her country’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, his office said.

The Trump White House is reportedly deliberating the best time to present its plan for Arab-Israeli peace. But Arab societies still hate Israel.

Trump’s compromise budget funds about $5.7 billion in border wall construction while spending about ten times as much on foreign countries.

Jordanian King Abdullah II met Iraqi President Barham Saleh in Baghdad on Monday, according to state television, in the monarch’s first trip to Iraq in more than a decade.

TEL AVIV – President Donald Trump’s surprise decision to withdraw troops from Syria will not thwart Washington’s plans to fight the threat posed by Iran in the region, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Jordan on Tuesday, marking the first stop on a tour of eight predominantly Middle Eastern countries to sustain support against Iran’s nefarious activities in the region and assuage allies’ concerns over the White House’s plan to pull American troops from Syria.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to depart on a tour of the Middle East next week in a bid to galvanize regional leaders to confront Iran and remind allies that the United States is not disappearing from region amid the Trump administration’s decision to pull American troops out of Syria and possibly Afghanistan, according to senior State Department officials.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday the Trump administration has helped facilitate cooperation between Israel and a number of Arab countries with which it has no diplomatic ties.

TEL AVIV – Jordan’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday said despite the fact that a Jordanian government spokeswoman was photographed stepping on an Israeli flag, the Hashemite kingdom is committed to respecting its peace agreement with Israel.

JERUSALEM — Israel said Sunday that it had filed a strong protest to Jordan over a picture of a Jordanian government minister stepping on an image of the Israeli flag.

AMMAN, Jordan — A Jordanian court on Tuesday sentenced 10 people to prison terms of between three years and life in connection with a deadly 2016 attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

Contents: Islamic Jihad agrees to Egypt-sponsored ceasefire in Gaza after night of terror; Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) accepts the Egyptian-mediated ceasefire

The U.S. and Israel, should support King Abdullah on the one hand, and to demand that he take action against antisemitism and anti-American sentiment on the other.

DEAD SEA, Jordan — Flash floods unleashed by heavy rains swept away middle school students and teachers visiting hot springs near the Dead Sea on Thursday, killing 18 and injuring 35 as the torrent carried some for several kilometers, a civil defense official said.

Jordan said Thursday it’s decision to end a pair of land leases with Israel would not affect the decades-old peace agreement between the countries, seeking to calm fears in Jerusalem that ties could be downgraded.

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.

AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan said Wednesday a group of 279 Syrian rescue workers has left the kingdom for resettlement in Western countries three months after they were evacuated by Israel.

The diplomatic crisis over Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul does not appear to have damaged the Sunni Arab alliance led by Saudi Arabia.

DAMASCUS, Syria — Jordan and Syria agreed Sunday to reopen a vital border crossing between the two countries, three years after the commercial lifeline fell to rebel groups and traffic was halted.

The United States is pulling some of its anti-aircraft and missile batteries out of the Middle East, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing US military officials.

Jordanian King Abdullah II Bin Al-Hussein, while addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, called on the international community to combat “Islamophobia,” deeming it a threat that fuels terrorism along with jihadi ideology.

The United States presented Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas with a peace deal based on a confederation with Jordan, the Israeli left-wing organization Peace Now reported on Sunday.