Jordan's top diplomat says Netanyahu should not hold region's future hostage

Updated September 26, 2024 at 4:52 p.m. ET

Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister Ayman Safadi accuses Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of delaying Middle East peace talks as the fight against Hezbollah intensifies.

“Our message is that Netanyahu and his radical government should not be allowed to hold the future of the region hostage,” he said in an interview with Morning editionThis is Leila Fadel.

Safadi and other world leaders are meeting this week in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. His diplomatic visit to the United States comes as Israel continues its war in Gaza and carries out deadly airstrikes on the Lebanese border.

Health officials in Lebanon say Israeli airstrikes have killed nearly 600 people in recent days. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz posted on “There will be no ceasefire in the north. We will continue to fight against the terrorist organization Hezbollah.”

Jordan, a key U.S. ally, occupies a unique position in the region. The kingdom borders both the occupied West Bank and Israel. The majority of its citizens are of Palestinian origin – many of whom fled or were expelled during the creation of Israel in 1948 and the wars that followed. Jordan also has a long history peace treaty with Israel and maintains good relations with Lebanon and the United States.

Safadi, who is also the country’s foreign minister, spoke with Morning edition on his hopes for Gaza and the region.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Is the temporary ceasefire sought by the Biden administration between Israel and Hezbollah achievable?

This could be the case if Israel decides to follow suit and put an end to these senseless killings. What is on the table is a proposal for a temporary ceasefire, which would allow diplomacy to take its course. However, we saw the reaction of the Israeli Prime Minister and his Foreign Minister, who unequivocally declared that they would continue their aggression against Lebanon. And this, of course, would come at the expense of the entire region, as Israel pushes us all deeper into the abyss.

Today, Israel accuses Hezbollah of starting the fighting on this border. You’re talking about being pushed deeper into the region’s abyss. What stands in the way of the other ceasefire deal, the deal that would end the violence in Gaza, return the kidnapped hostages to Israel and bring the region back from the brink?

Netanyahu. If you talk to the mediators, they will tell you that on July 2, they reached a deal that the Israeli mediators agreed to. But when they returned to Israel to seek cabinet approval, they returned with a complete reversal of the commitments they had made. And obviously, the war continued and led to what we always warned it would lead to: regional escalation. We see this unfolding in Lebanon now, and our eyes are on the West Bank, where the possibility of an explosion increases by the day due to Israeli actions there as well.

Does Hamas have any responsibility for obstructing the ceasefire agreement?

I mean, obviously, I’m not saying that Hamas is not responsible for where we are. But I say that we had an agreement, that Hamas accepted it and that Netanyahu went back on the commitments made by his negotiators.

You talked about the West Bank. Jordan borders the West Bank, where settler violence is on the rise and hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and thousands displaced. Are you concerned about the possibility of mass displacement from the West Bank to Jordan? And what is your country doing?

Look, everything we’ve observed over the last few months and before indicates that Israel is systematically trying to create conditions that would push Palestinians out of the West Bank. For us, we said it was a red line. We will never allow the movement of Palestinians to Jordan. In fact, a few days ago at the UN, His Majesty, in his speech to the General Assembly, said it unequivocally: Jordan will never be the homeland of the Palestinians. The Palestinians belong to Palestine, Jordan is for the Jordanians and will do everything in its power to prevent this.

Would Jordan be ready to welcome war refugees in Gaza?

No, because Gazans must stay in the country. We have already borne the brunt of the refugees. We know that those who left will never return. Jordan is the country hosting the highest number of refugees per capita in the world. We are not talking about a temporary move here. We know from what we have seen in the past and what Israel is doing that Israel is making Gaza unlivable and uninhabitable. And that is why their policy is to empty Gaza of its population. And we simply will not allow that to happen, because it would only put the region on the path to more destruction and future wars.

Jordan’s King Abdullah criticized the United Nations when he addressed the General Assembly. And you urged the Security Council to stop the war. What actions do you want to see?

If the Security Council had acted in accordance with its mandate when the aggression in Gaza began, we would not be at this very dangerous moment now. What we are calling for is an unequivocal Security Council resolution under Chapter Seven, urging both sides to end the war and begin an irreversible path toward peace that will bring security and safety to Israelis and Palestinians. War will not achieve this. Israel will not have security if the Palestinians do not have security. Jordan is a peacemaker. We have had a peace treaty for over 30 years. So when we speak, we speak with the credibility of peacemakers. The two-state solution, which the whole world agrees on, including the United States, is the path to a peace in which Israel will live, secure, accepted and normalized in the region. And Palestinians would live in dignity and freedom and have their right to statehood fully respected.

This Israeli government has violated international law, killed aid workers, killed more journalists than any war in recent history, killed more UN personnel than any war in recent history . And yet, she suffered no consequences. And what we say to our friends and allies here in the states and elsewhere is that you are not supporting Israel by supporting this Israeli government. What this Israeli government is doing is detrimental to the future of Israelis, because it will take generations to overcome the magnitude of hatred and dehumanization resulting from this war and will take a big step toward peace. So this government is harming Israel, harming the region, killing Palestinians and putting the region on a very, very dangerous path toward all-out regional war.

And what is your message to American policymakers right now? I mean, diplomatic efforts have failed so far, and the proposed ceasefire for Lebanon and Israel is also being rejected right now. What role do you want the United States to play right now?

Look, our message is that Netanyahu and his radical government should not be allowed to hold the region’s future hostage. They should not be allowed to condemn his people and Israel to war. So basically we want consequences, we want the implementation of international law and we want actions that will end this war and put us all on the path to a peace that, again, will provide security and the safety of Palestinians and Israelis throughout the region. .

What blame can we share with Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas?