Obama calls Jordan’s King Abdullah

President Barack Obama called Jordan’s King Abdullah today. The two discussed Obama’s "recent visits to Saudi Arabia and Egypt," a White House readout said.

The President reiterated his commitment to work hard to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a two-state solution, as he underscored in his speech in Cairo.  They discussed ways of ensuring that all parties fulfill their obligations and responsibilities to ensure that negotiations toward a two-state solution have the best chance to succeed, and promised to continue close coordination in this regard, as demonstrated by the upcoming meeting on June 11 between King Abdullah and the President’s Special Envoy for Middle East Peace, George Mitchell, in Amman.

Obama’s chat with Jordan’s Abdullah comes a couple days after he called Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu delivers a highly anticipated speech on Sunday.

"He’s going to say something about ‘We’ve always said we don’t want to govern the Palestinians,’ and advocate some form of separation. ‘But a Palestinian state divided between the West Bank and Gaza, with Hamas a front for the Iranians, is not something we can live with without compromising Israeli security interests. However, at the end of a process which I am willing and ready to begin immediately I could see some form of Palestinian sovereignty,’" predicted one former Israeli official to The Cable. 

As the White House readout of the Obama-Abdullah call indicates, U.S. peace envoy George Mitchell is currently on a trip to the region, his fourth since taking the job, having made stops in Oslo, Israel, and Ramallah. Mitchell is expected to go on to Jordan tomorrow, followed by Syria and Lebanon.

Congressional sources urge Mitchell, after his trip to the region, to come back up to the Hill "to reinforce the spine" of members. "It’s critical Mitchell come up to the Hill and meet with key members and tell them, ‘You guys need to stay with us,’" a staffer said. Otherwise, he said, groups that want to ease U.S. pressure on the settlements issue can try to drive a wedge between the administration and lawmakers.

Next week, Israeli Foreign Minister Avidgor Lieberman comes to Washington. Last week, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak came through town, where he pushed the urgency of the Iran issue in meetings from the White House to the Pentagon, and told Congressmembers he met with that Israel was looking for more "nuances" on the settlements issue.

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and Strategic Affairs Minister and former Israeli Defense Forces chief Moshe Ya’alon also came through town in recent days. Obama’s aggressive peace plan could lead to "Hamastan in the West Bank," Ya’alon reportedly warned an audience at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy Tuesday, advocating for slowing the process down.

Arab allies including Jordan’s Abdullah have pushed the Obama administration to move quickly on a comprehensive peace plan. "What we are talking about is not Israelis and Palestinians sitting at the table, but Israelis sitting with Palestinians, Israelis sitting with Syrians, Israelis sitting with Lebanese," Abdullah told the Times last month. "And with the Arabs and the Muslim world lined up to open direct negotiations with Israelis at the same time. So it’s the work that needs to be done over the next couple of months that has a regional answer to this — that is not a two-state solution, it is a 57-state solution."