Amman said to back Israeli demands on Jordan Valley

[shira]

Jordan has been pushing the United States to support Israel’s position that it needs to maintain a security presence in the Jordan Valley under any agreement with the Palestinians.

Israel is expected to coordinate with Amman to drive home the message this week to the Americans — especially Secretary of State John Kerry, who was in the region Thursday for talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials — that keeping the IDF on the Jordan River is crucial to regional stability, a Thursday report in the Israeli daily Maariv said.

Kerry landed in Israel Wednesday night and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday morning. According to US officials, Kerry brought with him a West Bank security plan that he intends to present in meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders this week.

Israel insists on having an IDF presence on the Israeli-Jordanian border, which gives the narrow country some strategic depth and early warning on its eastern border, and rejected an American proposal to place an international force there.

A senior Israeli official told Maariv that Netanyahu is determined to finish building a security fence along the border with Jordan, a move Amman sees as important to its own security as well. Israel is worried about the proliferation, through Jordan, of arms to a future Palestinian state, which Jerusalem has insisted remain demilitarized.

more:
http://www.timesofisrael.com/?p=774154

[geek tragedy]

1. Another pro-permanent occupation propaganda piece.

If Israeli troops surround the Palestinian areas on all sides, control its borders, its airspace, and don't let it have its own immigration policy or controls, it's still occupied territory, not a state.

[Scootaloo]

2. If Jordan wants a fence, then Jordan should build a fence on its side of the border

I'm sure the king, being a king, has funds for such a project.