Jordan’s King Abdullah II arrives in Kuwait, meets emir

By Mohamed Abdul Ghaffar

KUWAIT CITY (AA) - Jordan’s King Abdullah II visited Kuwait on Tuesday to discuss the myriad crises now plaguing the region with Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, according to Kuwait’s official KUNA news agency.

“The two sides discussed means of promoting Arab unity and joint action, along with the importance of reaching political solutions to the region’s crises,” KUNA reported.

King Abdullah was accompanied on his visit by a high-level delegation that included Jordanian Prime Minister Hani al-Mulki; chief of staff of the Jordanian Royal Court Fayez Al-Tarawneh; and Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi.

The king’s visit was originally slated for last Tuesday, but was postponed amid a flurry of shuttle diplomacy by Kuwait’s emir, which last week brought him to Riyadh, Dubai and Doha in hopes of resolving an unprecedented inter-Arab diplomatic crisis that began earlier this month.

On June 5, five Arab countries -- Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Yemen -- abruptly cut diplomatic relations with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorism.

Mauritania followed suit shortly afterward, while Jordan has downgraded its diplomatic relations with Doha.

Qatar, for its part, strenuously denies accusations that it supports terrorism, describing recent moves to diplomatically isolate it as “unjustified”.