Israel Joins Jordan to Save the Dead Sea

Israel and Jordan have signed a historic water-sharing agreement on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea. The Jerusalem Post reported that, “According to their agreement, Jordan and Israel will share the potable water produced by a future desalination plant in Aqaba, from which salty brines will be piped to the Dead Sea. In return for its portion of the desalinated water in the South, Israel will be doubling its sales of Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) water to Jordan on the countries’ northern border.

In October, Israel and Jordan celebrated twenty years of formal peace. A Jordanian writer has described the level of cooperation between the two countries to be “at its peak.” In addition to cooperating over water, Israel and Jordan have increased security cooperation in the face of the threat of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).