• by IPS Correspondents (cairo)
• Wednesday, November 09, 1994
• Inter Press Service

CAIRO, Nov 09 (IPS) - King Hussein of Jordan is due to visit Israel for the first time on Thursday to exchange peace treaty documents with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The Israeli government press office told IPS that Rabin would meet the King at the Sheikh Hussein bridge linking the two countries across the River Jordan.

At 11 am local time, the two leaders would witness the opening of the bridge as another crossing point between the two former enemies, the office said.

The two would then travel to the northern Israeli town of Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee to exchange peace treaty documents signed last month and since ratified by their respective parliaments.

King Hussein would return to Amman that day to meet his Spanish counter-part, Juan Carlos, who is due to visit Jordan for week, according to an international Arab newspaper.

The newspaper, London-based 'Al Hayat', also claimed Wednesday that the United States is to build an 'air bridge' linking Western Europe to Jordan to supply the Hashemite Kingdom with 1.2 billion dollars worth of military aid.

This is part of a 'Washington Declaration' deal Israel and Jordan signed in the United States in July to end their state of war.

Quoting unnamed Jordanian sources, the Saudi-backed paper said the bridge would link Jordan with U.S. military bases in Western Europe along which the United States would supply Amman with fighter-aircraft, tanks and other military material to upgrade its armed forces.

The paper said the bridge would be established over the "next few weeks". The report puts flesh on outline details made public after July's 'Washington Declaration'.

Not only would the United States cancel almost one billion dollars' worth of Jordanian debt to Washington, but Amman would also receive generous United States military help in exchange for making peace with Israel.

The deal is part of Israeli efforts to ensure Jordan is strong enough to resist armed attack by a third party which might then use it as a staging post for an attack on Israel.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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