Jordan promises continued support for Yemen

AMMAN — Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour held talks on Thursday with   Yemen’s Deputy President Khaled Bahah, who is currently visiting the Kingdom. 

Bahah, who is also president of the Yemeni interim government, arrived in Amman earlier in the day on a three-day official visit to the Kingdom, heading a high-ranking Yemeni delegation.

Talks between the two sides addressed ways to strengthen the Jordanian-Yemeni relations and dealt with regional developments, mainly in Yemen.

Ensour welcomed the Yemeni delegation, noting that Jordan sympathises with all the brackets of the Yemeni people. He also stressed King Abdullah’s support of Yemen, its unity, security and stability. 

Ensour said Yemen has suffered wars that destroyed a large part of its assets and created new sentiments that the Yemeni people and the Arab nation have  never had, describing these feelings as “malicious and condemnable”, in an apparent reference to the rising sectarianism in the Arabian Peninsula country . 

Ensour expressed Jordan’s readiness and commitment to provide the Yemeni people with heath assistance, medicine and human resources as soon as security conditions allow, pointing out that Jordan is part of the Arab coalition that supports the legitimacy in Yemen and “seeks to end the state of chaos there”.

Bahah expressed Yemen’s appreciation of Jordan’s support and conveyed greetings of Yemen’s President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to His Majesty King Abdullah. 

This week, Yemen has approved a humanitarian truce, he said, expressing hope that UN Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed will arrive at solutions for the crisis there and that Yemen will be back “on the right political course”.  

He thanked Jordan, saying it was among the few countries that did not prevent Yemenis from entering its territories during the difficult circumstances that Yemen is going through. 

He added that Yemen would name a Yemeni ambassador to Jordan soon, noting that Yemen hopes to reinvigorate its diplomatic ties with Jordan.   

The Yemeni delegates expressed their appreciation of Jordan’s support and their wish to benefit from the Jordanian expertise in the areas of relief aid and humanitarian assistance provision and to increase cultural and student exchanges between the two countries.   

In response to questions by the Yemeni delegation on university students and the continuation of cultural exchanges, Ensour said hundreds of Jordanian students who were studying in Yemen have returned as a result of the war there.  

Senate President Abdur-Ra’uf S. Rawabdeh and Lower House Speaker Atef Tarawneh held separate meetings with Bahah and discussed issues of joint concern and the latest regional developments, especially in Yemen.     

Bahah is scheduled to meet with several senior Jordanian officials and meet with the Yemeni community in Jordan during the visit.