For the first time since the fiasco surrounding the attack on the Israeli embassy in Jordan, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with Jordan’s King Abdullah II.

The Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement that said that the two leaders discussed regional affairs as well as cooperation between the two countries on a political as well as economic level. The office also said that Netanyahu reassured Abdullah regarding Israel’s commitment to maintaining the status quo with regards to holy places in the city of Jerusalem.

In a statement issued by the royal palace in Jordan, a spokesperson said: “The King emphasized the need to attain progress with regards to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, based upon a two-state solution following the outline of the peace plan proposed by the Arab League. A Palestinian state along the pre-1967 border with east-Jerusalem as its capital is the only way to establish a lasting peace in the region.”

The Jordanians also mentioned that the leaders discussed the joint project of building a canal from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea as well as other cooperative projects in the region.

The Netanyahu-Abdullah meeting came after almost a year of strained relations. Last July, an Israeli guard at the Israeli embassy in Amman shot and killed two Jordanians, saying one of them, a teenager, had tried to attack him with a screwdriver and that a second person was hit in the crossfire.

Netanyahu arranged a hero’s welcome for the guard, angering the Jordanians. Abdullah lashed out at Netanyahu at the time, saying everyone in the kingdom was “infuriated” by what he called “unacceptable and provocative behavior,” presumably by Netanyahu.

Diplomatic relations were repaired only gradually, and last month, Israel returned its ambassador to Jordan, following a seven-month hiatus.

As YWN had reported, Israeli Ambassador Einat Shalein along with her entire staff, had to flee the country due to gunshots being fired at the Embassy following the stabbing of security guard Ziv Moyal. Moyal, who had defended himself and fatally shot his attacker, also killed another Jordanian after a stray bullet fired by Moyal had accidentally killed him. Jordan has demanded five million dollars in compensation for the death of the two Jordanians, as well as the shooting of Jordanian Judge Riad a-Zaytir, who was shot to death in March 2014 at the Allenby Bridge.

(AP / YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)