Jordan: Olmert to meet King Abdullah
After his meetings with Bush and Mubarak, prime minister set to leave for Amman, where he will meet with Jordanian king in bid to discuss two countries' mutual interests; realignment plan to be pushed aside in order to prevent disagreements
The two officials are scheduled to meet in Amman on Thursday afternoon. The meeting is part of a series of summits Olmert has been holding in the past few weeks, in a trip which began in the White House in Washington and continued in Sharm al-Sheikh in a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
On Sunday, Olmert will leave for London, where he is set to meet with British President Tony Blair, and on Tuesday he will meet French President Jacques Chirac in Paris. At the beginning of July he also expected to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
A meeting between the prime minister and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to be scheduled in the next few weeks.
Jordan has on several occasions in the past expressed its objection to the realignment plan, and the king himself is expected to voice opposition to a unilateral pullout in the West Bank. Abdullah is also set to offer Olmert to act as a go-between with the Palestinians, and ask that the humanitarian aid to the PA be extended.
The Israeli PM, on his part, will tell the Jordanian leader that he welcomes dialogue with the Palestinians, but that no negotiations can take place with a Hamas-led PA. Olmert is also set to present before Abdullah Vice Premier Shimon Peres' plan for the financial rehabilitation of the Jordan Valley and Arava regions, in the framework of an international project that would create tourist sites, a regional airport and industrial zones in the area.
