Jordan's King Abdullah has told US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin that a surge in violence in the occupied West Bank threatens regional stability.
“There is a need for calm and to reduce escalation in Palestinian territories and stop any unilateral steps that undermine stability and abort chances of attaining peace,” the palace in Amman said, following talks between King Abdullah and Mr Austin on Sunday.
“His Majesty reaffirmed the importance of establishing an independent, sovereign and viable Palestinian state on the 4 June 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital,” the palace said.
Mr Austin arrived in Jordan on Sunday on the first leg of a Middle East tour that will also take him to Israel and Egypt to show support for Washington's main regional allies amid the growing threat posed by Iran, US officials said.
The Defence Secretary wrote on Twitter before his departure that he would meet key leaders and “reaffirm the US commitment to regional stability and advancing the shared interests of our allies and partners”.
King Abdullah, whose country hosted the first Israeli-Palestinian meeting in Aqaba last week with the participation of top US and Egyptian officials, said efforts must be hastened to bring about a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace deal based on a two-state solution.
In Israel, Mr Austin will also raise concerns about the violence in the West Bank that has alarmed Jordan and Arab leaders and discuss diplomatic efforts to reduce tension before the start of Muslim and Jewish religious holidays, US officials said.
The US Defence Department said ahead of the visit that discussions would also focus on advancing multilateral security co-operation, particularly in the area of integrated air and missile defences.
Central to discussion will be the “full constellation of Iran-associated threats”, a senior defence official was quoted as saying on the Pentagon's official site before the start of Mr Austin's visit.
“Those threats include Iran's arming, training and funding of violent proxy groups, aggression at sea, cyber threats, its ballistic missile programme and drone attacks,” the official said.
The king also discussed with Mr Austin Jordan's concerns over the growing entrenchment of Iranian-backed militias in southern Syria.
The militias have increased drug-smuggling operations through the country's borders, with the narcotics destined for markets in the Gulf, a Jordanian official told Reuters.
Amman wants more US military aid to bolster security on the border, where Washington has — since the more than decade-long conflict began — given about $1 billion to establish border posts, Jordanian officials say.
Jordan's border with Syria is about 375km long.
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
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