On 26 October 1994, Jordan and Israel signed the peace treaty[7] at a ceremony in Israel`s Arava Valley, north of Eilat and near the Jordanian border. Prime Minister Rabin and Prime Minister Abdelsalam al-Majali signed the treaty and Israeli President Ezer Weizman shook hands with King Hussein. Clinton observed, accompanied by U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher. Thousands of colorful balloons fired into the sky ended the event. [Citation required] In October 2018, Jordan notified Israel of its intention not to renew land leased under Schedule I of the agreement. The Annex granted Jordan the right not to renew the lease of Naharayim (Baqoura) and Tzofar/Al Ghamr after 25 years, since a termination took place a year earlier. [25] The policy of Shebaa Farms, occupied by Israel, a strip of rugged mountains between Lebanon, Israel and Syria, has long eclipsed what some Lebanese environmentalists call the ”real problem” of the disputed area: its water resources. Today, activists are calling for hydro-diplomacy to prevail over political maneuvering as the most effective solution for one of the most important stumbling blocks for peace in the Middle East. Rising Temperatures Rising Tensions, a report published in June by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, sees water as a major trigger for conflict in the Middle East, the world`s most water-rich region. In December 2013, Israel and Jordan signed an agreement to build a desalination plant on the Red Sea near the port of Von Akaba, Jordan, as part of the Dead Red Sea Canal.
[24] Clashes broke out between Israeli forces and Palestinian militant groups in Gaza and the West Bank. [20] Hussein`s wife, Queen Noor, later claimed that her husband had trouble sleeping: ”Everything he had worked all his life, every relationship he had laboriously built on trust and respect, every dream of peace and prosperity he had for Jordan`s children became a nightmare. I really didn`t know how many other Husseins could take. [20] After the agreements, Israel and Jordan opened their borders. Several border crossings have been erected, allowing tourists, businessmen and workers to travel between the two countries. [16] Israeli tourists began to visit Jordan, many visited the Sela ha`adom (”Red Rock”) of Petra – a stone-carved Nabataean city that had fascinated Israelis in the 1950s and 1960s and which often attracted adventurers to come quietly. Discussions began in 1994. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told King Hussein that Jordan could be ”excluded from the big game” after the Oslo accords with the PLO. Hussein met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian President Hafez al-Assad. Mubarak encouraged him, but Assad simply told him to ”talk” and not sign an agreement.
US President Bill Clinton urged Hussein to start peace talks and sign a peace agreement with Israel and promised that Jordan`s debt would be cancelled. Efforts were successful and Jordan signed a no-bell agreement with Israel. Rabin, Hussein and Clinton signed the Washington Declaration on July 25, 1994 in Washington, D.C. [5] According to the statement, Israel and Jordan ended the official state of hostility and would begin negotiations to ”end bloodshed and mourning” and a just and lasting peace. [6] Egypt welcomed the agreement, while Syria ignored it. The Lebanese Hezbollah militia withstood the treaty and fired mortars and rockets at towns 20 minutes before the ceremony. [8] Israeli residents, forced to evacuate cities for shelter security, took away transistor radios and mobile televisions so as not to miss the historic moment of the signing of a second peace treaty with an Arab state. [Citation required] Hussein`s support for Netanyahu soon went away. [20] Israel`s actions during the 1996 Qana massacre in southern Lebanon, the Likud government`s decision to build
