Jordan scraps energy deal with Israel over Gaza war

Jordan has announced that it will not sign a deal with Israel to exchange solar energy for desalinated water in light of Israel’s brutal war on besieged Gaza.

"The energy for water deal was supposed to have been done last month, but we’re not going to sign it," Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Al Safadi told the Qatar-based Al Jazeera news channel on Thursday.

"We will not be able to continue the energy-for-water agreement because no Jordanian minister can sit next to an Israeli minister to sign an agreement while they are killing our brothers in Gaza," he added.

Regarding demands by Jordanians and parliament to cancel the Jordanian-Israeli peace agreement, Al Safadi said Jordan will not hesitate to do anything that would help the Palestinian people, adding, "This agreement will now be a document covered in dust on one of the shelves."

"Israel is pushing the entire region into hell, and this war cannot continue," he said. "We see the [occupied] West Bank is on fire, and we see settlement terrorism and the northern front with Lebanon escalating...and what Israel is doing has created an environment of hatred amid which there cannot be normal, peaceful relations."

"We have a people that we respect. We have public opinion, and we have positions as a Jordanian state," he said.

"We signed the peace agreement in 1994 after the signing of the Oslo Accords as part of a collective Arab movement to reach a comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution.

"Comprehensive peace based on a two-state solution has not been achieved. On the contrary, we now see Israel reoccupying Gaza and disavowing all its obligations. As I said, in this atmosphere, the agreement will be a document gathering dust on the shelf for now," he added.

Diplomatic protest

Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Israel signed an initial Declaration of Intent in November 2021 to explore the feasibility of the "energy-for-water" project.

Jordan decided to recall its ambassador to Israel in early November against the backdrop of Israel’s war in besieged Gaza.

Al Safadi said then that "the return of the ambassador will be linked to Israel stopping its war on Gaza and the humanitarian catastrophe it is causing along with all its measures that deprive the Palestinians of their right to food, water and medicine and for a safe and stable life on their national soil."

Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion of the blockaded Palestinian enclave has killed at least 11,500 Palestinians, over 4,700 of them children.

The Israeli death toll stands at 1,200, officials say, after revising it down from 1,400.