Cairo: US Vice-President Mike Pence’s upcoming visit to the Middle East comes at a time of intensely publicised friction between his administration and the Palestinian leadership, posing a dilemma for his Arab hosts — Egypt’s president and Jordan’s king — on how to safeguard their vital ties with Washington without appearing to ignore Palestinian misgivings.
Both countries are heavily dependent on US military and economic aid, and talks with a senior Trump administration official like Pence offer them an opportunity to strengthen those ties.
It’s a tall order given that Pence is visiting at a time of rising anti-US sentiments in the region, stoked by President Donald Trump’s recognition of occupied Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The city is home to major Muslim sites, along with Christian and Jewish shrines, and its Israeli-occupied eastern sector is sought by the Palestinians as the capital of a future state.
Egypt’s elder statesman, Amr Moussa, warned Arab leaders against altering their long-standing objective: A Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. In a jarring article published recently, the former foreign minister and Arab League chief warned that making concessions on the Palestinian issue would be a “gross strategic mistake.”
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who has openly cursed Trump over his occupied Jerusalem decision, showed just how deep the gap is between him and the United States after Trump’s decision.
Addressing a Cairo conference on Wednesday, he repeated that Washington removed itself from its role as an honest peace broker. He added: “[Occupied] Jerusalem will be a gate for peace only if it is Palestine’s capital, and it will be a gate of war, fear and the absence of security and stability, God forbid, if it is not.”
Pence was to have visited the region in mid-December, but rescheduled as Trump’s dramatic policy shift on occupied Jerusalem just a few days earlier triggered Arab condemnation and region-wide protests.
At the time, Abbas said he would not receive Pence in the biblical city of Bethlehem, as originally planned, and the spiritual leaders of Egypt’s Muslims and Orthodox Christians — Al Azhar’s Grand Imam Shaikh Ahmad Al Tayyeb and Tawadros II respectively — also cancelled their meetings with him.
The US-Palestinian crisis has escalated since, with Abbas publicly attacking Trump this week over what he fears is an emerging US plan to propose a Palestinian mini-state in only some of the land Israel captured in the 1967 war and without a foothold in occupied Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration on Tuesday said it was sharply reducing funding to a UN aid agency serving millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants, blaming the Palestinians for lack of progress in Mideast peace efforts.
Egypt’s president, Abdul Fattah Al Sissi, reassured Abbas on Wednesday of Cairo’s continued efforts to secure an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, according to a statement by presidential spokesman Bassem Radi.
Al Sissi has repeatedly appealed to Trump to be more involved in the fight against Islamist militancy in the region. With his security forces struggling to contain an insurgency by a Daesh affiliate in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, the general-turned president will show little willingness to allow anything to diminish what he sees as a strategic alliance with Washington.
Sounding a realistic note, Abbas aide Ahmad Majdalani said the Palestinians did not expect Arab countries to follow suit in their strong response to Trump’s occupied Jerusalem’s decision. At the same time, he explained, they don’t believe the Trump administration will win support for any peace plan that weakens Arab ties to occupied Jerusalem.
Still, Jordan’s king faces a particular conundrum, as US-Palestinian ties deteriorate. Palestinians make up a large segment of his country’s population.
Jordan largely derives its political legitimacy from its historic role as custodian of occupied Jerusalem’s main Muslim shrine, the Al Aqsa Mosque, which is Islam’s third holiest site. Any perceived threats to Muslim claims to the city, such as Trump’s shift on occupied Jerusalem, undermine its vital role there.
Over the years, King Abdullah has tried to soften continued domestic opposition to Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel, struck by his father in 1994, in part by offering his services as mediator on behalf of the Palestinians, in dealings with Israel and the US.
Pence’s meeting with King Abdullah on Sunday follows a series of anti-US protests in the kingdom — including some organised by Islamists.
Moussa Shteiwi, director of Jordan University’s Centre for Strategic Studies, said Amman cannot afford to disengage from the United States.
But, he explained, Pence needs to “carefully listen” to what US allies are saying about the risk involved in Trump’s occupied Jerusalem decision.
Jordan is the recipient of $1.5 billion (Dh5.50 billion) in 2015 and $1.6 billion last year in US aid, partially given to fund humanitarian assistance and help Jordan shoulder the burden of hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria and Iraq.
Jordan, with its deteriorating economy and rising unemployment, is bracing for the fallout from the cuts in US funding for the UN agency that has for decades provided education, health and welfare services to some 5 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants in the region.
In contrast, Pence can expect a warm welcome in Israel, whose hardline government is one of the Trump administration’s biggest supporters on the international stage.
Trump has adopted a series of decisions seen as sympathetic to the Israeli government, distancing himself from the two-state solution favoured by the international community, expressing little opposition to colony construction and most recently, recognising occupied Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
