White House to Welcome Jordan’s King Abdullah II Next Week

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden will welcome the king and queen of Jordan to the White House next week to celebrate 75 years of diplomatic relations and grapple with how to bring an end to the ongoing crisis in Gaza.

The Feb. 12 visit by King Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein and Queen Rania Al Abdullah comes just two weeks after a drone attack on Tower 22, a little-known U.S. desert outpost in northeastern Jordan, killed three American troops and injured at least 34 others.

That attack put a renewed spotlight on the U.S. military presence in Jordan, further angering a population in the country that had already been holding mass demonstrations against Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza strip.

That military action, a response to a Hamas attack on Israel in October, has left an estimated 27,000 Palestinians dead, and could threaten the rule of Abdullah, who has long been a key American ally in the region.

It is believed that somewhere north of 3 million of Jordan’s 11.5 million residents are Palestinian.

In a statement, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said the president and Abdullah would discuss how the United States and Jordan can “continue to deepen their strong bilateral relationship.”

“President Biden and King Abdullah II will also discuss the ongoing situation in Gaza and efforts to produce an enduring end to the crisis,” Jean-Pierre continued.

“Towards that end, the two leaders will discuss U.S. efforts to support the Palestinian people including through enhanced humanitarian assistance into Gaza and a vision for a durable peace to include a two-state solution with Israel’s security guaranteed,” she said.

The war in Gaza started on Oct. 7, when paramilitary wings of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Al-Qassam Brigades, and other terrorist groups launched a series of coordinated armed incursions into Israeli territory, the first such invasion since the Arab–Israeli War in 1948.

Since then, Israeli forces have been pounding Gaza in an effort to bring Hamas to heel once and for all, but widespread and mounting civilian casualties have led to consternation and protests across the globe.

Abdullah has been calling for an end to what he’s called “this atrocious war” in Gaza since the hostilities broke out.

In a Washington Post op-ed published in November, Abdullah said world leaders have a duty to intervene and end the fighting.

“It begins by recognizing our duty not only to enforce humanitarian intervention and put an end to this atrocious war but also to admit that the current path is not a path to victory for anyone,” he wrote at the time.

He also said the only path to peace that he could see would be one leading ultimately to “a two-state solution.”

“Israelis cannot continue their lives as usual, expecting security solutions alone to ensure their safety, while Palestinians live in misery and injustice,” he said, explaining his position.

Since publishing his op-ed, Abdullah has only intensified his efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza.

During a recent meeting with another long-time U.S. ally, Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates, he again reiterated the need to urgently address the worsening humanitarian conditions in the war zone.

Both leaders also said it is critical that a “comprehensive peace” be rooted in a two-state solution.

In addition, they stressed the need for continued diplomacy and dialogue to prevent the spread of a wider conflict in the region.

The latter also reflects the United State’s position. In formulating its military response to the drone attack on Tower 22, the Biden administration indicated that whatever retaliatory actions it takes, they’ll be timed and carried out to minimize loss of civilian lives.

On Wednesday, a U.S. military strike in Baghdad killed Wisam Mohammed Saber al-Saedi, the Kataib Hezbollah commander believed to be responsible for attacks on American forces in the region.

The strike, in a neighborhood in eastern Baghdad, came as the administration continued to map out retaliatory attacks against the Iran-backed militants — the Islamic Resistance in Iraq — who launched a drone attack that killed the three American soldiers. 

For those who don’t know, Tower 22 is located in the demilitarized zone on the border between Jordan and Syria. The Iraqi border is some six miles away.

For many years the region was the site of a massive refugee camp due to the rise of the Daesh terror group and the establishment of the Islamic State group’s so-called caliphate in 2014.

Though 100,000 people once lived there — mainly due to being prevented from crossing into Jordan — the camp’s population has decreased due to a lack of food and other supplies reaching it.

Tower 22 was established to watch the border and stem, to the extent possible, the infiltration of the refugees by extremist groups in the area, but it has always been a sensitive issue.

In fact, immediately after the drone attack, Abdullah denied the base even existed within Jordan’s border.

U.S. troops have long used Jordan as a basing point. At any given time, about 3,000 American troops typically are stationed across the nation.

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and at https://twitter.com/DanMcCue