CAIRO: Jordan’s King Abdullah II visited Egypt on Tuesday for talks with caretaker leader, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, state news agency MENA reported.
The Jordanian monarch "will have important discussions with… the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces," MENA said, without giving any more details.
Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah II were close allies and liaised frequently on various issues, notably the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
However an unprecedented popular uprising forced Mubarak to resign on February 11.
King Abdullah’s first visit to Egypt since Mubarak’s ouster comes as relations between the two Arab states are strained by Cairo’s insistence upon renegotiating its contract to export gas to the Hashemite kingdom.
Prior to an April attack on the gas pipeline between the two countries, Jordan had been importing enough Egyptian gas — 6.8 million cubic meters per day — to supply 80 percent of its electricity demand.
Under the terms of the 14-year deal signed in 2002, Jordan had been paying Egypt only half of the prevailing market price for the gas.
