Clinton: Netanyahu, Abbas trying to seek common ground

US secretary of state meets King Abdullah in Jordan; also announces $275m. in aid to Jordan to rehabilitate water sector.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hillary Clinton (photo credit: Benjamin Spier)
Hillary Clinton
(photo credit: Benjamin Spier)
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday said she is convinced that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas are trying to seek common ground in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Clinton spoke from Amman, Jordan where she was meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah.
"They are committed and they have begun to grapple with the hard but necessary questions," she said, shortly before leaving for the US "I am convinced that this is the time and these are the leaders to achieve the result we all seek."
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While in Jordan, Clinton also announced that the US will be giving the Hashemite Kingdom $275 million in additional economic aid over three years to rehabilitate the water sector in arid Jordan.
Jordan, among the world's 10 poorest nations in water resources, depends on rainfall for drinking water and irrigation. Drought has recently further battered the parched country, creating a water deficit of 60 percent.
Clinton told reporters that the aid will also create jobs and allow more than 1 million Jordanians to have safe drinking water.
Planning Minister Jaafar Hassaan said US aid to Jordan is already at $500 million annually.
He said a wastewater treatment plant in Zarqa, an impoverished town east of Amman, will also be rehabilitated.
Zarqa was the birthplace of al-Qaida in Iraq leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a US airstrike in 2006.