Anti-coronavirus cooperation tops meeting between Safadi, PLO’s Erekat

AMMAN — Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's (PLO) executive committee, on Tuesday discussed cooperation between Jordan and Palestine in facing the coronavirus pandemic in implementation of the directives of His Majesty King Abdullah and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Safadi and Erekat also went over efforts to mobilise financial support to UNRWA to enable it to continue offering vital services to refugees under these difficult circumstances that have placed additional burdens on the UN agency, which is already facing a financial crisis, according to a ministry statement.

The minister acquainted Erekat with the Kingdom’s efforts with some countries to secure the agency’s deficit of $14 million to face the coronavirus crisis.

Safadi and Erekat also warned against the dangerous repercussions of failure to secure the support the agency needs to face the pandemic, especially as the current available resources are not sufficient to sustain services beyond the end of May. 

They also reiterated the importance of maintaining coordination in facing any Israeli measures that undermine opportunities to realise peace according to the two-state solution that guarantees the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital on the pre-1967 lines, as stipulated in relevant international resolutions.

Safadi and Erekat warned against such Israeli steps and called on the international community to prevent Israel from making a decision to annex settlements and territories in the Jordan Valley.