Two weeks after Jordan and Israel signed a broad agreement to pursue bilateral negotiations, Jordan’s King Hussein is in town seeking additional aid from the Clinton administration.
Administration officials here expect President Clinton to announce an increase in military and humanitarian aid to Jordan after a White House meeting between the two leaders on Wednesday.
Jordan currently receives $30 million a year from the United States in combined military and economic assistance.
In addition to meeting the president, Hussein is scheduled to meet with Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Defense Secretary William Perry, Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and House and Senate leaders during his three-day visit.
“This visit is no coincidence of timing,” said Adam Garfinkle, director of the Middle East Council of the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia.
“The Jordanians were pretty scrupulous in setting this up. They want to get the Americans as on board as possible before more negotiations with the Israelis,” Garfinkle said.
According to the Israeli-Jordanian agreement signed June 7, diplomats from both countries will, for the first time, cross into each others’ country to negotiate a peace treaty.
During the meetings, scheduled for next month, the parties will delineate borders and outline the future of economic relations.
Hussein was quoted saying during his visit that he hopes to meet openly with Israeli leaders in the near future.
In the past, meetings between the Jordanian leader and Israeli officials have taken place clandestinely.
Responding to Hussein’s remarks, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said in Jerusalem on Tuesday that he was “ready to meet with King Hussein whenever and wherever he wants in an attempt to further peace between Jordan and Israel.”
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