Amman, Oct 25 (CTK special correspondent) – Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, now on his first visit to the Arab world, yesterday offered help with the ongoing migrant crisis to Jordanian King Abdullah II and invited him and Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour to Prague.
Sobotka also discussed the latest violence between Israelis and Palestinians with Jordan’s officials.
“I am very sorry that people on both sides have died in the past days,” Sobotka said at the beginning of his meeting with King Abdullah II.
He assured him that the Czech Republic was ready to help diplomatically with the resumption of peace talks.
Sobotka stressed that in the long run, Prague supported the solution to the conflict based on the existence of two, Jewish and Arab, states.
Sobotka mainly discussed the migrant crisis with Abdullah II and Ensour.
He said on Saturday the Czech Republic was ready to provide aid to Jordan worth 100 million crowns.
The money will mainly sponsor the Medevac programme, humanitarian aid and military cooperation.
Sobotka discussed the specific demands by Jordan with regard to further military cooperation with his Jordanian opposite number yesterday.
So far, it mainly covered the training of Jordan soldiers by Czech specialists, but now there is the chance of Czech soldiers being trained in the Middle East country.
Sobotka and Ensour also spoke about the opening of Jordan’s embassy in Prague.
President Milos Zeman called on the Jordanian representatives to do so during his visit to Jordan earlier this year.
“It is necessary to continue with the support. I am glad that the Czech Republic will. Above all, there is a need of increasing the support in the years to come,” Sobotka told journalists during his visit to the Zaatari refugee camp now housing roughly 80,000 displaced people from Syria. Zaatari is the biggest refugee camp in the Middle East.
He said it was a good thing that the money the Czech Republic had sent to the camp was turned into specific projects that were providing some help.
This mainly means electrification of the camp thanks to which some schools could prolong their operation as well as some minor projects such as the building of a children’s playground.
The government will discuss the increase in the support for refugees in the countries such as Jordan in the weeks to come.
“I think it is of major importance for the countries that can help such as the Czech Republic to continue with the help,” Sobotka said.
He said it was a pity that when it comes to migration, the Czech reputation did not correspond with the country’s real contributions.
“I think that the foreign and interior ministries have been unable to publicise the aid we are providing sufficiently,” Sobotka said.
Jordan has provided shelter to about 630,000 Syrians, the biggest number after Turkey and Lebanon.
($1 = 24.450 crowns)
