Jordan Opposes UN General Assembly Declaration to Create Palestinian State

According to an opinion column by Alexander Bligh, which appears in today's Jerusalem Post online, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has broken from the Arab League consensus, and is opposing a United Nations General Assembly resolution to create a Palestinian State in the West Bank and Gaza. Bligh based his column on the publication by the Dubai-based daily Al-Bayan of a leaked report that Jordan’s prime minister had revealed that his country would vote against Palestinian statehood at the UN General Assembly.

Jordan has long been on record as supporting a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, and has waived any territorial claims on the West Bank. So why would Jordan oppose the General Assembly resolution? Apparently, Jordan recognizes that the creation of a Palestinian state in any context other than a negotiated peace treaty with Israel would heighten rather than lower the prospects of war, and in all probability would give rise to an Islamist terrorist regime that would threaten the security of both Israel and Jordan.

So Israel and Jordan, the two nations most directly concerned, which would share borders with a new Palestinian state, both sharply oppose the proposed United Nations General Assembly resolution, scheduled to come to a vote in September.