Jordan is furious over Israel's continued refusal to renew a 2021 water agreement between the two countries, Israel's Kan public broadcaster reported, in a dispute testing one of Israel's longest standing regional relationships.
Under the 1994 peace treaty between the two countries, Israel is required to supply Jordan with 50 million cubic meters of water annually. In 2021, under the government of Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, Israel agreed to double that supply, providing Jordan, one of the most water scarce countries in the world, with 100 million cubic meters a year. That expanded agreement lapsed in late 2025 after a series of short term extensions, and Israel has since reverted to supplying only the baseline 50 million cubic meters mandated by the original peace treaty.
According to Kan, Israel has conditioned renewal of the additional supply on Jordan moderating its rhetoric toward Israel and restoring full diplomatic ties, which have been scaled back since the war in Gaza began in 2023 and have not included ambassadors in each other's capitals since then. A Jordanian source close to the royal family told Kan that the water issue is very important to Jordan and is itself part of the peace treaty, signaling Amman's frustration at what it sees as the linkage of a humanitarian necessity to unrelated diplomatic demands.
The dispute comes at a sensitive moment, with Jordan having provided support to the United States and Israel during the recent war with Iran, including assistance intercepting Iranian drones fired toward Israeli territory.
Jordan's King Abdullah II has separately declined repeated requests from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to meet in recent months, according to Israeli media reports, with the King reportedly conditioning any meeting on progress over the water issue and Palestinian related concerns.
The water question is also expected to feature in discussions around a possible trilateral energy summit involving Israel, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates, which would separately address a long delayed desalination and solar power initiative first agreed upon in 2021 that could eventually see Israel supply Jordan with 200 million cubic meters of water annually in exchange for Jordanian solar power.
