Jordanian king to make rare visit to Ramallah Monday

Jordan’s King Abdullah II is planning a rare state visit to the Palestinian Authority next week, sources in Amman and Ramallah said Thursday.

Palestinian, Israeli and Jordanian officials are in the final stages of talks over the visit to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, according to Israeli news site Ynet.

The meeting is slated to last just a few hours, according to the report.

A source in PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s office confirmed the visit would take place Monday.

This would mark the first time in five years that the king has visited the Palestinian Authority, coming on the heels of a high-stakes standoff over metal detectors and other security measures at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount and strained diplomatic ties between Israel and Amman.

Abdullah will need to traverse the Israel-controlled West Bank to reach Ramallah, and the visit must be coordinated with Jerusalem.

A spokesperson for Israel’s Foreign Ministry said he was unaware of the trip.

Jordan was a key player in efforts to calm tensions after Israel installed security measures at the Temple Mount following a July 14 terror attack there in which three Arab Israelis shot dead two police officers using guns they had smuggled into the holy site. The new Israeli measures prompted the Waqf Islamic Trust that administers the site to announce a boycott that devolved into nightly clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces.

On Wednesday Abdullah announced that he would donate 1 million Jordanian dinars ($1.4 million) to the Waqf, which is funded by Amman.

Abdullah also said Wednesday that Jordan was continuing to push for the prosecution of an Israeli embassy guard who killed two Jordanians during the height of tensions last month.

Israel says the guard was assaulted by one of the Jordanians in a suspected nationalistic attack.

After Netanyahu warmly greeted the guard upon his return to Israel, Abdullah said there would be diplomatic consequences.

Jordan, which considers itself a custodian of Jerusalem holy sites, was seen as playing a key role in lowering tensions, releasing the guard to Israel at the same time as Israel removed the metal detectors. Israel later rolled back other security measures as well, after almost two weeks of violent protests in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

On Saturday the 82-year-old Abbas was hospitalized, suffering from what doctors and officials described as “exhaustion.”

On Sunday Abdullah phoned Abbas to wish him well.