Jordan supports the idea of NATO-like military alliance in the Middle East. Jordan's King Abdullah II said this in an interview with the US broadcaster CNBC on Friday.
"I will be one of the first to support a Middle Eastern NATO," he said. - I would like to see more countries in the region involved in this alliance".
In his opinion, "the vision of the envisaged alliance must be clear and its role sufficiently specific". Furthermore, Abdullah II considers Jordan to be a partner of NATO. "We have been actively cooperating with NATO for decades," he recalled.
Regarding the Middle East settlement, the Jordanian monarch said the conflict between Palestine and Israel could create obstacles for cooperation in the region. "The refusal of the two parties [Palestinians and Israelis] to negotiate destabilizes the region, [negatively] affecting regional projects," he added.
There has long been talk in the region about the need for a 'Middle East Strategic Alliance' (MESA), which could essentially be the Arab equivalent of NATO. This topic was actively circulated in the media during Donald Trump's presidency in the United States. Six Gulf states (Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE, Saudi Arabia) as well as Egypt and Jordan were planned to be part of the 'Arab NATO'. The goals of the coalition were supposed to be to counter threats in the region and to intensify economic and energy cooperation.
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Photo: PATRICK SEEGER/EPA/TASS
Based on materials from TASS