AMMAN: Top US diplomat John Kerry met his Jordanian counterpart yesterday for talks focused on the turmoil in Egypt and Syria as well as his bid to unlock the Middle East peace process.
Arriving on an overnight flight from Washington, the secretary of state first held talks with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh before a private dinner with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
Today, he will meet Jordan’s King Abdullah II as well as Arab League officials to “provide an update on Middle East peace,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.
He was also expected to discuss the situation following the July 3 ouster of Mohammed Mursi by the Egyptian military.
Egypt, a powerful member of the Arab League, was expected to send someone to the Amman talks, but it was not known exactly who would represent the interim government.
As he met with his Jordanian counterpart, Kerry expressed an interest in visiting one of the refugee camps in Jordan sheltering a flood of refugees from the conflict in Syria, now in its third year.
Jordan has taken in some 550,000 refugees fleeing the fighting as rebels seek to overthrow President Bashar Al Assad.
But the influx of so many people is putting a huge strain on the small Arab nation’s already struggling economy.
Kerry told Judeh he was “happy to be back” on his sixth visit to the region.
“I think we may wind up visiting one of the refugee camps as we talk about Syria. We were just chatting about the importance of that,” he added.
“We have lots of bilateral issues to discuss and of course many challenges that we face in this region,” replied Judeh, saying they would discuss “the humanitarian spillover of the crisis and its effects on Jordan’s
economy.”
Kerry’s team has yet to finalise plans for any refugee camp visit.
There were no immediate plans for Kerry to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unlike previous trips where he has shuttled between Amman and Jerusalem.
“Because the Syrian Opposition Coalition elections just took place and there’s new Syrian opposition leadership, there is likely to be a discussion on Syria as well, to take advantage of the fact that a variety of Arab foreign ministers will be with him in Amman,” a senior US official told reporters.
AFP
