President Isaac Herzog will make the first official visit by an Israeli head of state to Jordan on Wednesday, officials said, in the latest thaw in ties between two countries formally at peace for nearly three decades, Reuters reported.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including Israel’s nearly 55-year-old occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, has long weighed on relations between Israel and Jordan, many of whose 10 million citizens are of Palestinian origin.

The planned meeting between Herzog and King Abdullah follows talks the Jordanian monarch held with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank on Monday in an apparent attempt to lower tensions before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Last year, clashes erupted between Israeli police and Palestinians around Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque at the height of the Ramadan fasting month, violence that helped ignite an 11-day war in May between Gaza militants and Israel.

In a statement, a spokesman for Herzog said issues to be raised at the royal palace include “deepening Israeli-Jordanian relations, maintaining regional stability, with an emphasis on the upcoming holiday period, [and] strengthening peace and normalization.”, as reported by Reuters.

King Hussein, Abdullah’s late father, signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, after years of covert contacts.

Although his post is largely ceremonial, Herzog has been a point man in efforts to mend long-strained relations between Israel and Turkey, visiting Ankara earlier this month for talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Earlier this year, he also visited the United Arab Emirates, which along with Bahrain and Morocco normalized relations with Israel in 2020 in a sign of shared concern over Iran.

The foreign ministers of the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt, joined by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, held a summit in Israel on Sunday and Monday. Jordan did not attend.

*Reuters

President Isaac Herzog will make the first official visit by an Israeli head of state to Jordan on Wednesday, officials said, in the latest thaw in ties between two countries formally at peace for nearly three decades, Reuters reported.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including Israel’s nearly 55-year-old occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, has long weighed on relations between Israel and Jordan, many of whose 10 million citizens are of Palestinian origin.

The planned meeting between Herzog and King Abdullah follows talks the Jordanian monarch held with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank on Monday in an apparent attempt to lower tensions before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Last year, clashes erupted between Israeli police and Palestinians around Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque at the height of the Ramadan fasting month, violence that helped ignite an 11-day war in May between Gaza militants and Israel.

In a statement, a spokesman for Herzog said issues to be raised at the royal palace include “deepening Israeli-Jordanian relations, maintaining regional stability, with an emphasis on the upcoming holiday period, [and] strengthening peace and normalization.”, as reported by Reuters.

King Hussein, Abdullah’s late father, signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, after years of covert contacts.

Although his post is largely ceremonial, Herzog has been a point man in efforts to mend long-strained relations between Israel and Turkey, visiting Ankara earlier this month for talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Earlier this year, he also visited the United Arab Emirates, which along with Bahrain and Morocco normalized relations with Israel in 2020 in a sign of shared concern over Iran.

The foreign ministers of the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt, joined by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, held a summit in Israel on Sunday and Monday. Jordan did not attend.

*Reuters