Jordan says King Abdullah met with Israeli Islamist lawmaker

JERUSALEM (AP) — The head of the Islamist party in Israel’s governing coalition met with Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Amman on Tuesday, the latest sign of warming ties between the two countries.

The Jordanian Royal Palace said in a statement that Abdullah and United Arab List lawmaker Mansour Abbas discussed “the latest developments in the Palestinian territories and ways to advance the peace process.” The king restated his commitment to a two-state solution to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Abbas’s office confirmed that he met with the Jordanian leader in Amman, but provided no additional details.

Abbas and his four-seat United Arab List made history in June by becoming the first Arab party to join an Israeli ruling coalition, enabling Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to form a government and oust longtime leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

Since the inauguration of Israel’s new government in June, Bennett has prioritized mending fences with neighboring Jordan. In September, Israeli President Isaac Herzog met Abdullah in the Jordanian capital less than two months after Bennett met Abdullah in secret.

The two countries signed a peace accord in 1994 and share close security ties, but recent years saw relations sour over Israeli policies toward the Palestinians and frictions at the contested Jerusalem holy site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.