Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz met in Abu Dhabi on Monday with his counterparts from the United Arab Emirates and Jordan to discuss a UAE-brokered water-for-electricity (solar energy) deal between Jerusalem and Amman.
I was pleased to meet with H.E. Dr Sultan Al-Jaber, Minister of Industry and Technology of the United Arab Emirates, CEO of the National Oil Company of Abu Dhabi and President-designate of the upcoming @COP28_UAE, who is hosting the regional meeting to promote the Prosperity… pic.twitter.com/VuWaRlyZZu
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) August 14, 2023
Katz was joined by Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Director General Yossi Shelley in meeting with UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, Jordanian Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Dr. Saleh A. Al-Kharabsheh, Jordanian Minister of Water and Irrigation Muhammad Jamil Musa Al-Najjar, Jordanian Minister of Environment Muawieh Khalid Radaideh and US climate envoy David Livingston.
“We had a meeting with our Jordanian and American colleagues and made great progress towards the realization of this historic project,” Katz said in a tweet, adding that he invited Al Jaber to visit Israel.
“The Abraham Accords are changing the Middle East,” Katz wrote.
The first agreement on the project, a memorandum of understanding (MoU), was signed in November 2021 at the Expo 2020 World’s Fair in Dubai.
A second MoU was signed a year later, in November 2022, at the COP27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh. Thousands of Jordanians took to the streets at that time to protest the agreement, condemning it as a step toward normalization of ties with Israel.
It somehow has escaped Jordanians that Israel has had a peace treaty with their country since October 26, 1994, and that Jordan needs Israeli water far more than Israel needs the headache of dealing with the antics of Jordan’s capricious lawmakers.
Under the Prosperity Initiative water-for-solar energy agreement, Israel is to provide Jordan will 200 million cubic meters of desalinated water per year. In exchange, the UAE will build a solar farm in Jordan, enabling Jordan to export 600 megawatts of solar power-produced electricity to Israel.
The final details are to be worked out ahead of the signing of binding agreements by Israel, the UAE, Jordan and the US at the COP28 United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held in Dubai at the end of the year.
COP28, the 28th session of the UN Climate Change Conference of Parties, will be held from November 30 to December 12, 2023 at Expo City Dubai.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog are expected to attend the summit.
