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Jordan's King: Israel Annexing Settlements Would Be Disaster

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, and Jordan's King Abdullah II, left, address the media during a joint press conference after a meeting in Berlin, Germany, September 17, 2019. (AP)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, and Jordan's King Abdullah II, left, address the media during a joint press conference after a meeting in Berlin, Germany, September 17, 2019. (AP)
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Jordan's King: Israel Annexing Settlements Would Be Disaster

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, and Jordan's King Abdullah II, left, address the media during a joint press conference after a meeting in Berlin, Germany, September 17, 2019. (AP)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, and Jordan's King Abdullah II, left, address the media during a joint press conference after a meeting in Berlin, Germany, September 17, 2019. (AP)

Jordan's King Abdullah II warned Tuesday if Israel goes ahead with the idea of annexing all the settlements in the West Bank it would be a "disaster" for attempts to find any two-state solution with the Palestinians.

Speaking after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he said he was "extremely concerned" about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's vow to annex all the West Bank settlements.

He stressed it will "directly impact" the relationship between Israel and Jordan, and Israel and Egypt, and that "these types of statements are... a disaster to any attempt to move forward to the two-state solution."

Merkel agreed, calling Netanyahu's vow "unhelpful."

“The German government backs an internationally negotiated peace solution in the sense of a two-state solution ... annexations are always detrimental to peace solutions. They do not help and therefore we do not agree,” she remarked.

King Abdullah added: “We are looking on this with tremendous concern."

Scores of outposts, unauthorized by Israeli governments, dot the West Bank, in addition to some 120 settlements that have been built in the area since its capture in the 1967 Middle East war.

The Palestinians and many countries consider all Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal under the Geneva Conventions relating to occupied territory. Israel disputes this, citing security needs and biblical, historical and political connections to the land.

Palestinians seek a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

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Syria's New Rulers Appoint Maysaa Sabrine to Lead Central Bank, Official Says

People and cars are seen in front of the Central Bank of Syria, after rebels seized the capital and ousted Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria December 11, 2024. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo
People and cars are seen in front of the Central Bank of Syria, after rebels seized the capital and ousted Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria December 11, 2024. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo
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Syria's New Rulers Appoint Maysaa Sabrine to Lead Central Bank, Official Says

People and cars are seen in front of the Central Bank of Syria, after rebels seized the capital and ousted Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria December 11, 2024. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo
People and cars are seen in front of the Central Bank of Syria, after rebels seized the capital and ousted Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria December 11, 2024. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo

Syria's new rulers have appointed Maysaa Sabrine, formerly a deputy governor of the Syrian central bank, to lead the institution as the first woman to do so in its more than 70-year history, a senior Syrian official said.

Sabrine, a longtime central bank official mostly focused on oversight of the country's banking sector, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

She replaces Mohammed Issam Hazime who was appointed governor in 2021 by then-President Bashar al-Assad and remained on after Assad was ousted by a lightning opposition offensive on Dec. 8.

Since the takeover, the bank has taken steps to liberalize an economy that was heavily controlled by the state, including by cancelling the need for pre-approvals for imports and exports and tight controls on the use of foreign currency.

But Syria and the bank itself remain under strict US sanctions.

The bank has also taken stock of the country's assets after Assad's fall and a brief spate of looting that saw Syrian currency stolen but the main vaults left unbreached, Reuters reported.

The vault holds nearly 26 tons of gold, the same amount it had at the start of its civil war in 2011, sources told Reuters, but foreign currency reserves had dwindled from around $18 billion before the war to around $200 million, they said.