"Israel's regional policies have thrown Jordan off balance," the report
said. "The tahdiya [calm] agreement with Hamas caused great embarrassment to
moderate Arab countries and exploded the policy of isolating Hamas. In
addition, in its prisoner deal with Hizbullah, Israel agreed to hand over to
Hizbullah the bodies of Jordanians. If Israel, for pragmatic reasons, finds
it appropriate to engage with Hamas, why shouldn't Jordan do the same?"
The report said Jordanian intelligence renewed contacts with Hamas as
early as July 2007. A year later, Hamas leaders were invited to Amman for
two rounds of reconciliation talks amid Jordanian concern that the
Palestinian Authority would collapse.
"Currently, Jordanian government leaders are concerned with their
increasingly precarious situation," the report said. "Iran, its Syrian
partner and Hizbullah and Hamas proxies are playing a destabilizing role in
the region, while Jordan sees Israel and the United States as currently
unwilling to confront them."
Inbari said Jordan's King Abdullah has lost interest in Arab-Israeli
peace efforts. The report said the king has been alarmed by what was termed
the "lack of political will" by Israel, the United States and other Western
states to confront Iran and its proxies, including Hamas and Hizbullah.
Jordan, whose political opposition is led by a Hamas supporter, was
expected to expand its dialogue to Hamas to include political issues. The
report said Hamas was mulling the prospect of transferring its headquarters
from Syria to Jordan.
"Jordan's current engagement of Hamas seems to indicate that [King]
Abdullah will pursue a negative and more confrontational posture towards
Israel," the report said.