Hamas’ call reassures Jordan about its regional role, analysts say

In this Aug. 7, 2017 file photo, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, left, receives Jordan's King Abdullah II at his headquarters, in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser, File)

AMMAN: According to former Jordanian information minister and former chief of the royal court Adnan Abu Odeh, a serious effort to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict cannot be carried out by only one regional partner.
"It is clear that you can’t solve the Palestinian problem only with Egypt on board. Jordan has to have something to do with it. When Hamas talks to the Jordanian king, this means that Jordan is important in the destiny of the region, and if there is a political solution, Jordan will be part of it," Abu Odeh told Arab News on Thursday.
Abu Odeh, a prominent political adviser to both the late King Hussein and his son, King Abdallah, explained that the Hamas leader’s phone call with the Jordanian king is aimed at reassuring Jordan of its relevance. "This call is aimed to remind all concerned that Palestinians know that Jordan has a role and they trust Jordan in carrying out that role."
Fahmi Sharab, a university professor and political analyst commenting on regional issues, told Arab News that the call from Hamas leader Ismael Haniyeh demonstrates the new thinking by Hamas which was unveiled in its important political document last May. "The new strategy is aimed at continuing the struggle with a more flexible political outlook and a pragmatic approach towards political issues."
Sharab says the call to Jordan’s king was followed by similar calls to other regional leaders. “Haniyeh called a number of Arab and regional leaders to reassure them of the seriousness of Hamas’ approach to the reconciliation effort and the peace process.”
Abu Odeh believes that an American led effort is underway and everyone is making adjustments to be in the best position possible to engage with the American effort. He adds that Israel’s idea of a confederation is not what the rest of the world understands it to be. “A confederation is an agreement between two independent states and not an agreement between a community and a state.”
Abu Odeh was the key architect of Jordan’s decision in 1988 by late King Hussein to break off administrative and legal ties with the West Bank in the early days of the first Palestinian intifada.
Naji Shurab, a professor in politics at Gaza's Al-Azhar University, told Arab News that the phone calls by Haniyeh to King Abdallah and other regional leaders are aimed at presenting the new head of Hamas as a man of stature and leadership. "The phone call is aimed at warming up relations with Jordan and also ensuring that Hamas’ role is not ignored. Also, the idea of Haniyeh calling kings and prime ministers is aimed at showing him as a leader who is ready to engage with other leaders during the upcoming peace process as an equal."
The phone call between Haniyeh and the Jordanian king came just three days after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas visited King Abdallah in Jordan.
In the phone call with Haniyeh and the meeting with Abbas, King Abdallah expressed his support for the Palestinian reconciliation process which he said was a necessary prerequisite for a peace deal with Israel.
Jordanian media gave special attention to the statement by Haniyeh stressing that Hamas is opposed to the rightwing Israeli efforts to equate Jordan with Palestine which included a well-known phrase often repeated by Abbas that Jordan is Jordan and Palestine is Palestine.
A press release by the Jordan news agency quoted Haniyeh as rejecting what it terms Israeli conspiracies.
“Hamas rejects all conspiracies and aspirations of the alternative homeland…Palestine is Palestine and Jordan is Jordan, and we will not allow any theories about the alternative homeland to pass in Jordan, which is an authentic Arab country with its own sovereignty, history and people,” Haniyeh said.