At Aqaba summit, Israel, PA agree to weigh restarting security coordination, meet again in Egypt

A security summit between Israeli and Palestinian officials in Aqaba has ended with a series of agreements, according to Jordanian and Israeli sources.

A senior Israeli official says that the summit ended with “an agreement to establish a joint security committee” to examine renewing Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation. The parties also agree to hold another meeting — sponsored by Egypt — before Ramadan, which is to start in under a month, “in order to examine progress in the security arena.”

Israeli officials at the summit stressed that Jerusalem will not walk back its decision to legalize nine settlement outposts in the West Bank and to build 9,500 housing units there, but it does not intend to make any further settlement announcements in the coming months.

Jordanian state broadcaster Al-Mamlaka reports that the talks ended with “agreement on a number of steps.”

Israel sent Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi to the talks, while the Palestinians sent PA intelligence chief Majed Faraj. US National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk, as well as Jordanian and Egyptian security officials, were also there.