Page 7 - DMEA Week 46

DMEA PoliCy DMEA
Israel’s political turmoil holds up economic progress with Jordan
middle east
tHE 25th anniversary of Israel and Jordan’s peace agreement has passed without ceremony, which mirrors the impasse in potential meetings between King Abdullah and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Amman has also rejected tel Aviv’s request to extend the period during which Israeli farmers can continue to work their fields in the tzohar and Naharayim enclaves now that the Israeli lease has expired and has offered financial resti- tution for any crops left in the fields.
Meetings at a lower level have continued and Israel sees Jordan as an important barrier between it and Iraq and beyond to Iran. A stable Jordan is a top Israeli national priority and the latter is keen to ensure that its neighbour does not fall to Islamist forces.
unfortunately, the importance of this policy is not replicated on the economic front. For the past year at least, development of the Sea-to- Sea and Red Sea-Dead Sea initiatives have been put on hold because of the political situation in Israel. The Sea-to-Sea Canal is intended to transport water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea to prevent the latter from drying up. Water treatment and desalination plants along the route would provide fresh water to all of south- ern Jordan, Israel’s eastern Negev and even the Gaza Strip.
The Jordan Gateway is a joint industrial zone planned near Kibbutz tirat tzvi in the Jordan Valley, envisioned as becoming a free trade zone. A bridge across the River Jordan connecting
them has just been completed and products produced in the Gateway could be designated in three ways to allow them to get around various boycotts and restrictions and enable trade with countries that have no formal relations with one party or another. Full implementation of the free trade zone awaits the completion of an access road on the Israeli side.
Natural gas is one area in which relations between the two countries are actually improv- ing, despite internal opposition in Jordan. In 2016, Israel’s Leviathan Consortium and Jor- dan’s National Electric Power Co. (NEPCO) signed a second contract valued at 10bn shekels ($286mn) over 15 years. According to the con- tract, the Leviathan gas field will supply Jordan with 40% of its total energy.
Farmers on both sides have also developed interesting relations with joint conferences on growing crops, pest control, irrigation and more. Good relations exist between the respec- tive farming communities and these are likely to continue to prosper.
these more optimistic developments may well pave the way to advancing co-operation in other areas. If a new government is formed in Israel soon, this strategic interest will certainly be high on its list of priorities, and not just for secu- rity considerations, but also to show the people of Jordan that peace really is worth their while. For that purpose alone, it can only be hoped that the government will do whatever is necessary to expedite these economic initiatives.™
Week 46 21•November•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P7