Jordan on Sunday rejected a proposal, allegedly floated by US administration officials, calling for the creation of a Palestinian-Jordanian confederation.
Jordanian government spokeswoman Jumana Ghneimat said that joining the kingdom with the West Bank — the bulk of the area Palestinians want for a future state and controlled by Israeli since 1967 — is not a matter that is open for discussion.
In comments reported by the Khaberni news agency, Ghneimat said that “discussing the idea of a confederation with the regions of the West Bank is not possible.”
She clarified that Jordan’s position, which is based on the two-state solution of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, is fixed and clear.
But Nabil Abu Rudeinah, the official spokesman of the Palestinian Authority presidency, said that the idea of a confederation has been on the agenda of the Palestinian leadership since 1984.
However, the Palestinian spokesperson signaled that a two-state solution is a prerequisite for any future arrangement with Jordan, reported Wafa, the official Palestinian Authority news agency.
Rudeinah added that a decision regarding a Jordanian-Palestinian confederation is a decision for the two nations to make.
The comments came hours after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told a delegation of Israeli peace activists — including lawmakers — about the US confederation scheme and his support for it.
According to the dovish Peace Now group, a senior delegation of which met Abbas on Sunday in Ramallah, the Palestinian leader said senior US administration officials Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt asked him recently about his opinion on a “confederation with Jordan.”
Abbas allegedly voiced interest in a tripartite confederation with Jordan and Israel, in what would appear a dramatic departure from his longstanding insistence on a two-state solution, according the to Israeli peace activists and a Palestinian official.
“‘I said [to Kushner and Greenblatt]: Yes, I want a three-way confederation with Jordan and Israel.’ I asked them if the Israelis would agree to such a proposal,” a statement by Peace Now quoted Abbas as saying.
While some Israelis who are opposed to an independent Palestinian state have long suggested some kind of confederation, with or without Jordan, the PA has so far clung to its demand for sovereignty in the framework of a two-state solution.
The Prime Minister’s Office and the Foreign Ministry declined to comment on Abbas’s statements.
The US administration also did not directly comment immediately on the Peace Now report.
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