“Jordan is an indispensable partner for the European Union. Jordan is an anchor of stability and wisdom in the eye of the storm. I want to pay tribute to His Majesty King Abdullah, with whom I had the honour to have, yesterday, an inspiring exchange, about the current situation in the region.

Indeed, the volume of cooperation between the European Union and Jordan has been increasing. I do not want to go into figures, citing numbers. I prefer to stay with the big principle of our will to increase, our Strategic and Comprehensive Partnership Agreement. Today, our teams are working in order to make it possible by the end of the year.

This partnership will be part of a strong engagement of the European Union with the Mediterranean: you and me, we have been co-chairing the Union for the Mediterranean meetings in Barcelona; a new Strategy for the Middle East is in preparation; and European Union is committed to support Jordan and the region as much as needed.  We allow us to further advance in cooperation in the key areas of security and defence, trade, investment, energy, digital and human development.

In my meetings, I also reiterated the EU’s commitment to continue supporting the implementation of the Jordan triple modernisation process: the political, economic, and public administration reforms in which you are engaged. I want to commend the successful conduct of the September parliamentary elections. We deployed an Election Observation Mission. This Mission concluded that elections were fair and transparent. I want to congratulate you for that. Jordan has our full support when it comes to the implementation of the two other modernisation tracks: economy and public administration. We will adopt soon a Macro-Financial Assistance, a package of €500 million in order to support you in this transformation. Moreover, to assist Jordan tackling its multiple security challenges, we are already providing military support to the Jordanian Armed Forces under the European Peace Facility.

Now allow me to go to a wider approach to the region’s problems. On Gaza – let me first express my utter dismay over the unbearable human cost and large-scale destruction caused by this conflict. There are no more words to describe what is going on. Next Monday, humanitarian operations in Gaza are expected to stop. To stop because there is no more food and there is no more fuel. Hospitals have been turned into battlefields. Homes, schools, shelters, boys and girls, everyone has been coming under attack. The figures of number of children being killed are terrifying. In Gaza, everywhere is a frontline, no one is safe, and nowhere is safe. Parts of Northern Gaza are at imminent risk of famine. And in Central and Southern parts of the Gaza Strip, very few humanitarian actors are still working, and they report severe hunger.

Since early November, the Israeli authorities have facilitated just 40% of the planned humanitarian movements across the Gaza Strip. The rest were either denied, impeded, or cancelled due to security and logistical challenges. The people of Gaza cannot wait any longer for sustained humanitarian access and support. I repeat, next Monday, unless something changes, supply will no longer go into Gaza. No food, no fuel.

Like Jordan, I condemned the Knesset bills terminating the United Nations Agency’s UNRWA activities in Israel and East Jerusalem, seriously hampering the operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and endangering the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) operations across the region.

In September, we launched a Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution. I will continue working on that. But now, the urgency – the extreme urgency – is to try to help people in need in Gaza. The world cannot turn their view on what is happening there, my dear friend. At the European Union, I will do my best in order to make everybody aware of what is happening there. There is no more society in Gaza. There are only individuals fighting for their survival. To survive one day more before being killed by the bombs. The world cannot afford this situation. In the name of Humanity, in the name of [those who] believe that every human being deserves dignity, this massacre has to stop. That is what I wanted to say during my visit to Jordan. International community has to act in order to stop this tragedy.”