AMMAN (Reuters) -Jordan’s King Abdullah told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday he welcomed the administration’s move to reopen the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, state-owned media said.
Blinken however said a bit of time would be needed to carry out the move, which he announced on Tuesday during his maiden Middle East trip to consolidate a ceasefire that ended the worst fighting in years between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The Jerusalem consulate had served as a de facto embassy for the Palestinians until former President Donald Trump shuttered it in 2019.
Blinken was also quoted as saying that the Jordanian monarch, whose Hashemite dynasty has custodianship of Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, had played an instrumental role in brokering the deal to end fighting.
He further said that aid had started to arrive in the Gaza Strip as part of a drive to help reconstruction in devastated areas of the enclave, ruled by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
(Reporting by Suleiman Al-KhalidiEditing by Mark Heinrich)
