On the meeting between King Abdullah and Demirel
Jordan-Turkey, Politics, 3/9/2000

At the conclusion of the meeting of the Turkish council for foreign relations in Istanbul, attended by Turkish President Suleiman Demirel and King Abdullah II of Jordan who started on Tuesday a visit to Turkey, that will be concluded today, Demirel told journalists that Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian government "are preparing a joint project to buy the Turkish waters. If these countries decided to buy the waters from Turkey we will give them."

He signaled that getting the Palestinians involved in this project will "improve the trade feasibility of this project."

On Wednesday the Jordanian king called during his visit to Istanbul on Turkish businessmen to invest in his country and to take part in the privatization process.

The Jordanian and Turkish delegations achieved progress towards reaching an agreement according to which Ankara would export 180 million cubic meters of water to Jordan within two years.

The Jordanian side indicated the increasing cost of transporting waters by the sea to al-Aqaba port where there is no possibility at present to store the water before transporting the water to Amman, but when Israel and the Palestinian government and Jordan take part in this project, the costs of transporting the water will be shared by the three countries, and then Jordan can buy the water at lower costs.

The two sides are now awaiting Israel's reply at the beginning of April.

Previous Stories:
  King Abdullah in Ankara   (3/8/2000)
  Jordan intends to purchase shares of Turkish water   (1/22/2000)
  Talks by Jordanian irrigation minister in Ankara concerning water   (1/18/2000)

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