Live UpdateFrom the Liveblog of Thursday, November 16, 2023

Amman says it is pulling out of Jordan-UAE-Israel energy and water deal

By Sue Surkes 16 November 2023, 9:56 pm 8 Edit

Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a meeting with Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, during a day of meetings about the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian terror group Hamas, in Amman, Jordan, November 4, 2023. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool photo via AP)

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi announces that Jordan will back out of the United Arab Emirates-brokered deal intended to have Jordan supply solar energy to Israel, in return for Israel giving it desalinated water.

A preliminary deal was signed in November 2021 and was widely seen as a fruit of the Abraham Accords normalization agreement Israel signed with the UAE in 2020 under the auspices of the Trump administration.

Safadi tells the Qatari news organization Al Jazeera that “Israel is pushing the whole region toward hell [and] will have to bear the consequences.”

He adds: “We are doing whatever we believe will help to support the Palestinian people.”

Jordan, whose population is believed to be at least 50 percent Palestinian, has repeatedly condemned Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.

Upon recalling Amman’s ambassador to Israel on November 1, Safadi said the step was “an expression of Jordan’s position of rejection and condemnation of the raging Israeli war on Gaza, which is killing innocent people and causing an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.”