Amman, Jordan:

Jordan’s King Abdullah II received a phone call from new Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Saturday and they discussed Middle East peace efforts, state-run Petra news agency reported.

King Abdullah II “stressed the importance of working for a just and comprehensive peace” between Israel and the Palestinians “on the basis of the two-state solution,” the agency said.

The King of Jordan, where about half of the 10 million inhabitants are of Palestinian origin, told Herzog that the path to lasting peace in the region is the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

Herzog, who was sworn in as President of Israel on Wednesday, tweeted that he stressed “the importance of strategic relations between our countries.”

“I told Her Majesty that I intended to work on strengthening the links,” Herzog added.

The call came two days after Israel and Jordan struck a deal for the Jewish state to sell unprecedented amounts of water to the parched kingdom, while dramatically increasing Jordanian exports to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Israel.

The two countries announced on Saturday that Israel would sell 50 million cubic meters of water.

Herzog’s office said in a statement that Abdullah “expressed satisfaction after the return of diplomatic relations between the two countries to their right path.”

The president said he wanted to strengthen economic and tourism ties between the two countries.

Relations between Jordan and Israel, which have a 1994 peace treaty, became strained under former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Earlier this year, he was banned from using Jordanian airspace, thwarting what was supposed to be his very first trip to the United Arab Emirates.

Netanyahu was replaced last month by Naftali Bennett, whose coalition has made warming relations with Amman a foreign policy priority.

Jordan is one of the poorest water countries in the world and experts say the country is struggling with one of the most severe droughts in its history.

(Except for the title, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)