• Abdullah appeals for effort to ‘rebuild trust and confidence’
• Pence is first senior US visitor to region since Jerusalem move

Guardian staff and agencies, 21 Jan 2018 – Vice-President Mike Pence began a visit to Israel on Sunday, after a tense meeting in Jordan in which King Abdullah appealed for an effort to “rebuild trust and confidence” shattered by US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
In Jordan, Pence tried to reassure Abdullah the US was committed to restarting peace talks and to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, if both sides agreed.
Such a caveat deviates from longstanding US policy, which is that a two-state solution is the only possible outcome of any peace deal.
Trump’s announcement on Jerusalem drew condemnation across the Arab world and infuriated the Palestinians, who seek the Israeli-annexed eastern sector of the city as a future capital.
Trump’s policy shift posed a dilemma for Abdullah, a staunch US ally who derives his political legitimacy in large part from the Hashemite dynasty’s role as guardian of a key Muslim site in Jerusalem.
Any perceived threat to Muslim claims in the city is therefore seen as a challenge to Jordan, where a large segment of the population is of Palestinian origin.
Pence told Abdullah the US has committed “to continue to respect Jordan’s role as the custodian of holy sites, that we take no position on boundaries and final status”.
It was a message Pence also relayed on Saturday during talks with the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, in Cairo.
After meeting US troops, to whom he delivered a strong denunciation of Democratic tactics in the federal government shutdown in Washington, Pence told reporters he and Abdullah had “a very frank discussion”.
“Look, friends occasionally have disagreements and we agreed to disagree on the decision by the United States to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” he said. “But what we agreed on was the need for all parties to come back to the table.
“The Palestinian Authority has been absent from direct negotiations since 2014. And I hope I impressed upon King Abdullah our earnest desire to restart the peace process.”
Abdullah expressed concerns about the regional fallout from the Jerusalem decision.
“Today we have a major challenge to overcome, especially with some of the rising frustrations,” he said.
Abdullah described the Pence visit as a mission “to rebuild trust and confidence” in getting to a two-state solution, in which a state of Palestine would be established in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, lands captured by Israel in 1967.