Israel’s Cabinet has approved funding for a fence to be built along part of the country’s eastern border with Jordan.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that the future fence will run for 30 kilometers from Israel’s southern tip toward the site of a new airport that is under construction. He says the entire route of the fence will be on Israeli territory and will not infringe upon Jordanian sovereignty. The plan was coordinated with Jordanian authorities.
Israel and Jordan signed a peace deal in 1994 and have maintained cordial relations since.
In recent years Israel has constructed fortified fences with Egypt to prevent terrorists from entering and to stem the flow of African migrants and in the Golan Heights to prevent terrorist infiltrations from Syria.
Prime Minister Netanyahu, at the start of a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, referred to the foregoing decision:
“Yesterday in the Security Cabinet, we made a very important decision to continue a section of fence along our southern border, this time from Eilat, 30 kilometers north to past the Timna airport that is under construction. This is important. It is part of our national security. It joins the fence that we built along the length of our border with Sinai, which blocked the entry of illegal migrants into Israel and – of course – the various terrorist movements. This step also joins the fence that we built on our border on the Golan Heights.
“I would like to make it clear that this fence will be entirely within the territory of the State of Israel. It will not, in any way, infringe on the sovereignty of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and its national interests.”
By: AP and United with Israel Staff