The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of Jordan, Lt. General Mahmoud Freihat, on Saturday received Royal Australian Air Force Commander and Defense Force Chief, Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin, and his accompanying delegation, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.
Attended by the Australian Ambassador and the Australian Military Attaché in Amman, Freihat and Binskin discussed several issues and ways of enhancing cooperation between the armed forces of both countries.
Binskin and the delegation visited the Martyr’s Memorial and listened to a brief history on the stages of establishing the memorial.
The Air Chief Marshal laid a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and signed the guestbook.
Meanwhile, His Majesty King Abdullah held talks on Sunday with visiting U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on developments related to the Palestinian cause and Jerusalem and the strategic partnership ties between the two countries.
During the meeting at Al Husseiniya Palace, attended by Her Majesty Queen Rania, wife of Vice President Pence and a number of officials from both sides and began over a lunch banquet, the King welcomed Pence’s visit saying: “I am glad we are seeing you here today, especially when it comes at a very critical point in our region.”
“First, I would like to acknowledge and thank the US for its historical friendship and support to Jordan across many, many years. You have been a partner that has always stood with our country and our people through very difficult times, and I just wanted to express how much we appreciate the continuous support that we get from your country,” he added.
“Our wide-ranging discussions today I believe are timely, and as always as friends and partners we will be candid and frank with each other,” His Majesty pointed out.
“As you are aware, obviously for us, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, for Jordan and the region, we see as a potential major source of instability. That is why we were encouraged by the President’s early commitment to bring a solution to this decades-long conflict,” the King said.
“I had continuously voiced over the past year in my meetings in Washington my concerns regarding a US decision on Jerusalem that does not come as a result of a comprehensive settlement to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. And I know that we are going to talk about that today, and that you have some points that you are going to raise,” the King underlined.
For his part, VP Mike Pence said: “As you mentioned, Your Majesty, the United States and Jordan had stood together for decades. It has been a partnership strategic in scope, important in the region and important in the world. And we are here to reaffirm our friendship and our partnership and our great respect for you and for the role that the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has played in this region and across the globe during all the time of our friendship and partnership.”
I’m also here to express our great admiration for your leadership and the courage of the Jordanian military in the fight against terrorism. Together, with the American military and the Iraqi military and our coalition partners, we’ve made dramatic progress in the battle against ISIS; driving ISIS out of Iraq, and driving ISIS out of the capital of their so-called Caliphate of Raqqa. And you can be assured that we will continue to work closely with you as we drive ISIS out of existence together,” he said.
“And let me also say, at President Trump’s direction, we’re announcing in the last week more than a $110 million that the United States is making available to rebuild Christian and religious minority communities in Iraq and Syria that have been decimated by war. And we’re grateful for your personal commitment to religious diversity and religious freedom, and we look forward to working with you to ensure that all the peoples of all different faiths can find a way forward and recover after these years of conflict,” he said.
