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Israeli, Jordanian officials discuss enhancing cooperation

Xinhua, April 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

Israeli and Jordanian officials met on Thursday to boost bilateral cooperation in various fields, the Israeli Government's press office said in a statement.

Israel's Deputy Regional Cooperation Minister Ayoub Kara met with the Jordanian Governor of Aqaba, Hani Al-Mulki, and discussed ways to promote bilateral economic, industrial, agricultural and energy cooperation.

The two discussed an ongoing project set to increase the number of Jordanian day workers employed in hotels in the southern Israeli resort town of Eilat, ahead of the busy summer season.

The Jordanians wourld work in cleaning, arranging rooms and dish washing in Eilat hotels, and return to Jordan following each day of work.

On Monday, Israel's Interior Minister Aryeh Deri announced the employment of 500 more Jordanians in Eilat, the second phase of the project, authorized by the Israeli government in June 2014, which amounts to 1,500 workers from Jordan overall.

On Thursday, the Israeli and Jordanian officials discussed increasing the number of Jordanian work permits from 1,500 to 2,500.

The two talked about establishing a joint industrial zone for the Israeli town of Eilat and Aqaba. Another joint industrial zone is in the works in the Jordan valley.

Other suggestions that came up during the discussions are the building of a joint packaging and marketing center for agricultural products for exports to Europe, as well as a project to build saltwater fish farms on both sides of the Israeli-Jordanian border.

Kara also talked about Israel's possible future cooperation with Saudi Arabia through Jordanian mediation, including a project of oil exports from Saudi Arabia to Europe through an Israeli pipeline between Eilat and Ashkelon, a port city in the southern-central coastline.

Both sides said they would appoint representatives to sort out the details and meet again next month.

Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994, and remain on relatively good terms, with ongoing cooperation on infrastructure projects, like an Israeli-Jordanian natural gas pipeline, as well as security cooperation.

Tensions increased between the two countries amid unrest in October 2015 around the contested site of Temple Mount, a flashpoint site in east Jerusalem, holy to both Jews and Muslims.

Israel occupied the site from Jordan, along with the West Bank, the rest of east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast War.

Israel and Jordan run the site together, and Jordanian officials criticized Israel's alleged attempt to "take over" the site, as some Jewish worshippers and Israeli lawmakers called to allow Jews to pray in a contested part of the site, where only Muslims can pray, according to long-standing arrangements.

With that, Jordan sent on Wednesday a memorandum of protest to Israel over incursions to Temple Mount by a known right-wing Jewish activist, Yehuda Glick, supporting Jews right to pray in the site. Endit