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 Jordan |  United States |
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Jordan has been a very close major non-NATO ally of the United States in the Middle East since 1996. [1]
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Jordan | United States |
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Jordan has been a very close major non-NATO ally of the United States in the Middle East since 1996. [1]
Relations between the U.S. and Jordan have been close for over four decades. [2] U.S. policy seeks to reinforce Jordan's commitment to peace, stability, and moderation. The peace process and Jordan's opposition to terrorism parallel and indirectly assist wider U.S. interests. Accordingly, through economic and military assistance and through close political cooperation, the United States has helped Jordan maintain its stability and prosperity. [3]
Since its inception, Jordan has relied on sponsorship from major Western powers. Great Britain filled this role until the late 1940s; the U.S. stepped in during the 1950s. During the Gulf War of 1991, Jordan tried to solve the situation in an Arabian framework[ clarification needed ] that the U.S. interpreted as pro-Iraq. As a result, the U.S. started monitoring the country's only ocean port, Aqaba, to prevent any supplies from reaching Iraq. Jordan suffered financial hardships for this, and attitudes toward the U.S. only improved during the Madrid Conference of 1991, where the U.S. deemed Jordanian participation as essential. [4]
King Abdullah advised Washington against the 2003 Iraq War, but later allegedly gave the invading coalition some degree of covert and tacit support, despite the overwhelming opinion of his public. [5] The Jordanian government publicly opposed the war against Iraq. The King stressed to the United States and European Union that a diplomatic solution, in accordance with UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions 1284 (1999) and 1409 (2002), was the only appropriate model for resolving the conflict between Iraq and the UN. [6] In August 2002 he told The Washington Post that an attempt to invade Iraq would be a "tremendous mistake" and that it could "throw the whole area into turmoil". [7]
In February 2023, King Adbullah and Crown Prince Hussein met with U.S. President Biden at the White House in Washington, D.C. [8] [9] The President reaffirmed that the US would support Jordan’s "security and economic prosperity". [8] [10] It was Abdullah's third meeting with President Biden after July 2021 [11] and July 2022. [12]
On 29 April 2023, a United States bipartisan Congressional Delegation led by Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy visited Jordan and met with King Abdullah and Crown Prince Hussein. [13] [14] McCarthy stated he chose Jordan as the first country to visit as Speaker of the House because Jordan is "a strategic ally in the Middle East and share[s] America’s commitment to peace, prosperity – and most importantly – stability in the region." [13] [15] The historic friendship and means to increase cooperation between the countries were discussed in the meeting. King Abdullah expressed his gratitude for the United States' support of Jordan and highlighted the necessity for further efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He put emphasis on the two-state solution which would result in an independent Palestinian State on the 1967 state lines with East Jerusalem as the capital. [16] [17] During the Israel-Hamas war, President Biden and King Abdullah II met several times discussing humanitarian assistance to Gaza and another ceasefire. [18] [19] [20] [21]
Since 1952, the United States has provided Jordan with economic assistance totaling more than $14 billion ($1.3 billion in loans, and $7.7 billion in grants), including funds for development projects, health care, education, construction to increase water availability, support for microeconomic policy shifts toward a more completely free market system, and both grant and loan acquisition of U.S. agriculture commodities. These programs have been successful and have contributed to Jordanian stability while strengthening the bilateral relationship. U.S. military assistance—provision of material and training—is designed to meet Jordan's legitimate defense needs, including preservation of border integrity and regional stability. Jordan signed a Threshold Agreement with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) in October 2006, and was subsequently deemed by the MCC to be eligible for a Compact Agreement in recognition of the country's progress on economic, social, and political reform indicators. [3]
As of 2013, the United States had given Jordan's intelligence agency, the General Intelligence Directorate (the G.I.D), over $3.3 billion in aid over the previous five years, with another $200 million pledged for the Syrian refugee crisis. [22] The G.I.D is a close partner of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). [22] In 2014, due to concerns over Jordan's fragile economy being stretched by the influx of Syrian refugees, President Obama announced he would seek $1 billion in loan guarantees in addition to the $1.25 billion Congress approved in 2013. [23]
Since the deadly terrorist attacks of 9/11, the United States has focused on security and stability in the region, while simultaneously fighting the War on Terror. As military training and intelligence operations became a higher priority after 2001, the Bush Administration revised the nation's rhetoric on human rights promotion and democracy in the region, despite the turbulent political climate of the Middle East. In an effort to move toward a more interventionist foreign policy, Bush created a specific freedom agenda. He strongly encouraged "the spread of freedom as the great alternative to the terrorists' ideology of hatred." Based on American ideals of democracy and liberty, the agenda emphasized the way the continued spread of freedoms can combat the conditions and opposition that breed extremism. The United States' strong push for action and democratic reform, especially from 2001 to 2008, resulted in the refinement of technical programs and an increase in democracy assistance. Issues of gender empowerment, legislative reform, emphasis on elections, and support for educational and developmental programs have risen to the forefront.
Reform/action taken for human rights promotion and democratization in Jordan include:
The U.S. embassy is located in Abdoun, Amman. Principal U.S. officials in Jordan include:
The Jordan embassy is located in Washington, D.C.
In the United States Congress, the Friends of Jordan Caucus was launched March 6, 2009, to support a strong relationship between Jordan and the United States and to facilitate the exchange of ideas between Members of the House of Representatives and Jordanian officials. The caucus was first co-chaired by Congressmen Schiff and Boustany, and Congressmen Baird (R-IN) and Fortenberry (R-NE) served as the first vice chairs. [28]
Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein is King of Jordan, having ascended the throne on 7 February 1999. He is a member of the Hashemite dynasty, who have been the reigning Royal family of Jordan since 1921, and is considered a 41st-generation direct descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
Adel Al-Jubeir is a Saudi diplomat who is the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. He is the second person not belonging to the House of Saud to hold the office, after Ibrahim bin Abdullah Al Suwaiyel. He previously served as the Saudi Ambassador to the United States from 2007 to 2015, and was also a foreign policy advisor to King Abdullah.
Since the 1960s, the United States has been a very strong supporter of Israel. It has played a key role in the promotion of good relations between Israel and its neighbouring Arab states—namely Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, along with several others in the 2020 Abraham Accords—while also holding off hostility from other Middle Eastern countries such as Syria and Iran. Relations with Israel are a very important factor in the U.S. government's overall foreign policy in the Middle East, and the U.S. Congress has likewise placed considerable importance on the maintenance of a close and supportive relationship.
The dynamic between the League of Arab States and the Islamic Republic of Iran has been ambivalent, owing to the latter's varying bilateral conduct with each country of the former. Iran is located on the easternmost frontier of the Arab League, which consists of 22 Arab countries and spans the bulk of the Middle East and North Africa, of which Iran is also a part. The Arab League's population is dominated by ethnic Arabs, whereas Iran's population is dominated by ethnic Persians; and while both sides have Islam as a common religion, their sects differ, with Sunnis constituting the majority in the Arab League and Shias constituting the majority in Iran. Since Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979, the country's Shia theocracy has attempted to assert itself as the legitimate religious and political leadership of all Muslims, contesting a status that has generally been understood as belonging to Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia, where the cities of Mecca and Medina are located. This animosity, manifested in the Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict, has greatly exacerbated the Shia–Sunni divide throughout the Muslim world.
The Republic of Turkey (Türkiye) and the United States of America established diplomatic relations in 1927. Relations after World War II evolved from the Second Cairo Conference in December 1943 and Turkey's entrance into World War II on the side of the Allies in February 1945. Later that year, Turkey became a charter member of the United Nations. Both countries advanced ties under the Turkey in NATO, G20, OECD, Council of Europe, OSCE, WTO, the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, IMF, the World Bank.
Jordan–Syria relations are bilateral relations between the sovereign states of Jordan and Syria. Relations between neighbours have ancient roots as both countries are historically parts of the Levant or Greater Syria. The two states were created after the First World War from former Ottoman dominions by way of a secret bilateral agreement between Britain and France.
United States foreign policy in the Middle East has its roots in the early 19th-century Tripolitan War that occurred shortly after the 1776 establishment of the United States as an independent sovereign state, but became much more expansive in the aftermath of World War II. With the goal of preventing the Soviet Union from gaining influence in the region during the Cold War, American foreign policy saw the deliverance of extensive support in various forms to anti-communist and anti-Soviet regimes; among the top priorities for the U.S. with regards to this goal was its support for the State of Israel against its Soviet-backed neighbouring Arab countries during the peak of the Arab–Israeli conflict. The U.S. also came to replace the United Kingdom as the main security patron for Saudi Arabia as well as the other Arab states of the Persian Gulf in the 1960s and 1970s in order to ensure, among other goals, a stable flow of oil from the Persian Gulf. As of 2023, the U.S. has diplomatic relations with every country in the Middle East except for Iran, with whom relations were severed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and Syria, with whom relations were suspended in 2012 following the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War.
The dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991 brought an end to the Cold War and created an opportunity for establishing bilateral relations between the United States with Armenia and other post-Soviet states as they began a political and economic transformation. The United States recognized the independence of Armenia on 25 December 1991, and opened an embassy in Armenia's capital Yerevan in February 1992.
Kuwait is a designated major non-NATO ally of the United States.
Mongolia–United States relations are bilateral relations between the United States and Mongolia.
Relations between the Kingdom of Morocco and the United States of America date back to the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) and specifically since 1777 when the sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah became the first monarch to help the United States. Morocco remains one of America's oldest and closest allies in North Africa, a status affirmed by Morocco's zero-tolerance policy towards Al-Qaeda and their affiliated groups. Morocco also assisted the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency with questioning Al-Qaeda members captured in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere during the administration of President George W. Bush, who designated the country as a major non-NATO ally.
Peru and the United States established relations on May 2, 1826, following Peru's independence from Spain.
The United States officially recognized the independence of Ukraine on December 25, 1991. The United States upgraded its consulate in the capital, Kyiv, to embassy status on January 21, 1992. In 2002, relations between the United States and Ukraine deteriorated after one of the recordings made during the Cassette Scandal revealed an alleged transfer of a sophisticated Ukrainian defense system to Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
Diplomatic relations between Iraq and the United States began when the U.S. first recognized Iraq on January 9, 1930, with the signing of the Anglo-American-Iraqi Convention in London by Charles G. Dawes, U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom. The historiography of Iraq—United States relations prior to the 1980s is considered relatively underdeveloped, with the first in-depth academic studies being published in the 2010s. Today, the United States and Iraq both consider themselves as strategic partners, given the American political and military involvement after the invasion of Iraq and their mutual, deep-rooted relationship that followed. The United States provides the Iraqi security forces hundreds of millions of dollars of military aid and training annually as well as uses its military bases.
Israel–Jordan relations are the diplomatic, economic and cultural relations between Israel and Jordan. The two countries share a land border, with three border crossings: Yitzhak Rabin/Wadi Araba Crossing, Jordan River Crossing and the Allenby/King Hussein Bridge Crossing, that connects the West Bank with Jordan. The relationship between the two countries is regulated by the Israel–Jordan peace treaty in 1994, which formally ended the state of war that had existed between the two countries since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and also established diplomatic relations, besides other matters. Relations between the countries get strained from time to time, usually over tensions at the Al-Aqsa mosque. On 8 October 2020, Israel and Jordan reached an agreement to allow flights to cross over both countries’ airspace.
Content from the United States diplomatic cables leak has depicted Saudi Arabia and related subjects extensively. The leak, which began on 28 November 2010, occurred when the website of WikiLeaks — an international new media non-profit organization that publishes submissions of otherwise unavailable documents from anonymous news sources and news leaks — started to publish classified documents of detailed correspondence — diplomatic cables — between the United States Department of State and its diplomatic missions around the world. Since the initial release date, WikiLeaks is releasing further documents every day.
Historically, relations between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia could be considered as extending several centuries back to the relations between earlier regimes in Egypt – the highly autonomous Egypt Eyalet in the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Egypt – and the earlier manifestations of Saudi/Wahhabi power in the Arabian Peninsula. Saudi Arabia and Egypt are both highly influential countries in the Arab world. Egypt is the most populous Arab country, and Saudi Arabia is a member of the G20. According to a 2013 Pew global opinion poll, 78% of Egyptians express a favourable view of Saudi Arabia, and 19% express an unfavourable view.
Egypt–Jordan relations refers to the bilateral relations between the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the Arab Republic of Egypt. Since independence, the two nations have maintained good relations. Both countries are members of the Arab League, GAFTA, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the Council of Arab Economic Unity and the United Nations. The relationship has been quite stable with some uncertainties occurring in the 1960s and 1970s. There is a sizeable Egyptian population living in Jordan of 636,000 which is one of the largest host of the Egyptian diaspora. There are approximately 12,000 Jordanians living in Egypt.
Islamic Republic of Iran and Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan share a long but complicated relationship which has, at times, been tense and unstable. Jordan has an embassy in Tehran.
Yael Lempert is an American diplomat who has served as the United States ambassador to Jordan since September 2023. She previously served as acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs between August 2021 and May 2022. She also served as deputy chief of mission for the U.S. Embassy in London and U.S. chargé d'affaires to the United Kingdom.
Jordan's intelligence agency, the G.I.D., is a close partner of the C.I.A. in the Arab world, and over the past five years, the United States has given Jordan more than $3.3 billion in aid and pledged an additional $200 million to help cope with the refugees who have poured over the Syrian border since August.
This article incorporates public domain material from U.S. Bilateral Relations Fact Sheets. United States Department of State.
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