Jordan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ayman Safadi warned on Thursday of a case of “institutionalised” apartheid if a two-state solution is not reached between the Palestinians and the Israelis.
Mr Safadi, who is also Jordan’s minister of foreign affairs, also said on his visit to Washington that a one-state solution will not bring peace.
“The one-state solution is not a solution. It will be the one-state reality and it will be another area whereby apartheid will be institutionalised,” Mr Safadi said at the Brookings Institution, an American think tank based in Washington.
“That's something that will not bring peace to all of us and will not solve the conflict.”
Mr Safadi told The National in a press briefing on Friday that effective measures need to be taken to alleviate the problems the Palestinian Authority is facing.
“The Palestinian Authority is facing tremendous challenges and there’s a need for real measures to find an economic horizon that fulfills the demands of its people and presents a political path through a process leading to resolve the conflict and establishing a two-state solution.”
Jordan for decades has been an ardent advocate for the two-state-solution between the Palestinians and the Israelis and has been pushing to resume long-stalled negotiations between the parties. Mr Safadi said he would be discussing the resumption of talks in his meetings with US officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on Thursday.
“We’ll be having a very thorough conversation with our US partners in how we can create a path to restarting negotiations [between Israelis and Palestinians] and move forward.”
The administration of US President Joe Biden resumed aid to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) last year and has also engaged in outreach to the Palestinian Authority by sending high-level officials to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Ties had suffered during the administration of former president Donald Trump, who cut aid to the Palestinian Authority and shuttered its diplomatic mission in Washington.
The State Department has also heaped praise on recent contacts between Israeli and Palestinian officials, including Mr Abbas's first visit to Israel in a decade to meet Defence Minister Benny Gantz.
“It is imperative to say that maintaining the calm [between Israelis and Palestinians] is going to need measures that go beyond addressing the immediate needs,” Mr Safadi said, calling for the resumption of talks to achieve a settlement.
As to war-torn Syria, Mr Safadi warned against accepting “status quo politics” and called for US and Russian understanding to move the political track forward.
“Status quo politics is not an option for some in the region that continues to live with the terrible consequences of [the Syrian civil war],” he said.
Jordan currently hosts more than a million Syrian refugee and recently reopened communication with the regime of President Bashar Al Assad in an effort to boost security co-ordination.
In his meetings in Washington, Jordan’s top diplomat is seeking to renew a five-year agreement that guarantees $1.25 billion in annual US aid, set to expire in September.
“We're hopeful that we'll be able to include yet another [agreement] that would ensure a continuation of the critical US support for Jordan,” Mr Safadi said.
Following the meeting with Mr Blinken, the State Department emphasised the need for economic reforms in Jordan.
"They discussed the importance of implementing reforms that expand economic growth and opportunity, including securing access to water," the US readout of the meeting said.
Jordan's economy is struggling due to the effects of the pandemic.
On regional issues, Mr Blinken reaffirmed "US commitment to stability in the region through support of a political solution in Syria and a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict".
During his week-long visit, Mr Safadi met members of the US Congress and also held meetings at the White House and Department of Defence.
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
CHELSEA SQUAD
Arrizabalaga, Bettinelli, Rudiger, Christensen, Silva, Chalobah, Sarr, Azpilicueta, James, Kenedy, Alonso, Jorginho, Kante, Kovacic, Saul, Barkley, Ziyech, Pulisic, Mount, Hudson-Odoi, Werner, Havertz, Lukaku.
Third Test
Result: India won by 203 runs
Series: England lead five-match series 2-1
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
La Mer lowdown
La Mer beach is open from 10am until midnight, daily, and is located in Jumeirah 1, well after Kite Beach. Some restaurants, like Cupagahwa, are open from 8am for breakfast; most others start at noon. At the time of writing, we noticed that signs for Vicolo, an Italian eatery, and Kaftan, a Turkish restaurant, indicated that these two restaurants will be open soon, most likely this month. Parking is available, as well as a Dh100 all-day valet option or a Dh50 valet service if you’re just stopping by for a few hours.
The biog
DOB: March 13, 1987
Place of birth: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia but lived in Virginia in the US and raised in Lebanon
School: ACS in Lebanon
University: BSA in Graphic Design at the American University of Beirut
MSA in Design Entrepreneurship at the School of Visual Arts in New York City
Nationality: Lebanese
Status: Single
Favourite thing to do: I really enjoy cycling, I was a participant in Cycling for Gaza for the second time this year
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
The%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%201.8-litre%204-cyl%20turbo%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E190hp%20at%205%2C200rpm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20320Nm%20from%201%2C800-5%2C000rpm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeven-speed%20dual-clutch%20auto%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFuel%20consumption%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%206.7L%2F100km%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20From%20Dh111%2C195%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENow%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Dates for the diary
To mark Bodytree’s 10th anniversary, the coming season will be filled with celebratory activities:
- September 21 Anyone interested in becoming a certified yoga instructor can sign up for a 250-hour course in Yoga Teacher Training with Jacquelene Sadek. It begins on September 21 and will take place over the course of six weekends.
- October 18 to 21 International yoga instructor, Yogi Nora, will be visiting Bodytree and offering classes.
- October 26 to November 4 International pilates instructor Courtney Miller will be on hand at the studio, offering classes.
- November 9 Bodytree is hosting a party to celebrate turning 10, and everyone is invited. Expect a day full of free classes on the grounds of the studio.
- December 11 Yogeswari, an advanced certified Jivamukti teacher, will be visiting the studio.
- February 2, 2018 Bodytree will host its 4th annual yoga market.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
