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| Jordan & Israel Border |
Israeli expert Ronen Yitzhak confirmed that the Jordanians "do not want to link political positions with water aid," and felt that they were "unwilling to sell support to the Palestinians in exchange for water."
This came in statements reported by the "ynet" website, against the backdrop of the issue of transferring water to the Hashemite Kingdom, where Israel continuously transfers 50 million cubic meters annually to Jordan, as it pledged in the peace agreement, but the two sides are now preoccupied with another agreement, which has not been renewed since November 2025, that includes the transfer of an additional 50 million cubic meters annually at a reduced price.
In recent years, Israel has linked the renewal of the agreement to transfer additional water to Jordan, among other things, to statements by Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, in support of the Palestinian cause.
In this regard, Professor Ronen Yitzhak, head of the Middle East Studies Department at the Western Galilee Academic College and a researcher at the Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, stated, "This is not a crisis that will harm relations between the two countries. It is a minor crisis, one in a series of tensions. In 2021, it was decided to grant the increase to the Jordanians. They did not renew it because of the Jordanians' demand for moderation in their statements. The Jordanians did not want to link the two issues. They do not want to link political positions with water aid. They felt they were being blackmailed, and public opinion in Jordan is already hostile to Israel. The Jordanians felt they were not prepared to sell support to the Palestinians in exchange for water and were very angry about this issue. Israel wants to link it, and this is a mistake because public opinion already supports the Palestinian cause."
For his part, Jordanian Middle East analyst Daham Mithqal Al-Fawaz emphasized that "water should not be used as a tool for political pressure." He stated, "It is directly linked to water security and the needs of millions of Jordanians. If a decision is made not to renew the agreement concerning additional water, I see this as part of the current right-wing Israeli government's policy, which, since coming to power, has pursued an approach based on undermining relations with Jordan and weakening mutual trust. Indeed, it has repeatedly put the peace agreement itself to the test through a series of escalatory steps and statements."
He explained that Jordan, for its part, is committed to the agreements that have been signed, and stressed: “Respect for mutual commitments is the basis for maintaining stability. Using water as a political bargaining chip does not serve peace, but rather sends a negative message that agreements can be subject to internal political considerations. I believe that these developments should push Jordan to accelerate its efforts to achieve water security by diversifying its water sources and developing desalination facilities, so that no government, regardless of its political orientation, can use this issue as a means of exerting pressure on Jordan.”
It is worth noting that in November 2023, in the early days of the war in the Gaza Strip, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi announced that Jordan would not sign another agreement that was supposed to be finalized with Israel – the "water for energy" agreement. This came against the backdrop of strained relations between the two sides. According to the agreement, Israel was supposed to sell desalinated water to Jordan in exchange for solar electricity.
Following the Jordanian decision, Jordan realized that it had to revive an existing ambitious project, the "National Water Carrier," which, according to the plan, would desalinate water from Aqaba and transport it to different regions.
In recent days, Ahmed Al-Samadi, the project's technical director, stated that construction will commence in the last quarter of this year, following the completion of final preparatory phases. They are currently in Jordan finalizing preliminary agreements and paving the way for construction to begin. The project is expected to take approximately four years to complete, from the start of construction until water pumping begins, with pumping operations anticipated to commence in the last quarter of 2030.
