TEHRAN — Jordan’s foreign minister met Iran’s acting foreign minister here Sunday as the region braces for retaliation by the Islamic Republic and resistance groups over the occupying regime of Israel’s recent assassinations.
Ayman Safadi is the first senior Jordanian official to pay an official visit to Iran in over 20 years. Jordan is a close Western ally and helped intercept some of missiles and drones fired by Iran toward Israel in April. 
Iran has pledged to avenge the blood of Hamas’ top political leader Ismail Haniyeh who was assassinated in Tehran. 
Safadi “will deliver a message from His Majesty King Abdullah II to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the situation in the region and bilateral relations,” Jordan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Safadi met acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani on Sunday, and later met Iran’s new president, Pezeshkian, reported SNN.ir.
The last time a senior Jordanian official traveled to Iran on an official visit was in 2004 when then-Prime Minister Faisal al-Fayez went to Tehran. Last week, Jordan sent an official to Pezeshkian’s inauguration.
Jordan, which borders Occupied Palestine to the east, would likely be in the path of any Iranian retaliatory strike.
Jordan cooperates with American forces under the umbrella of the U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East and works closely with other militaries, including those of the Zionist regime and Saudi Arabia.
In posts on his X account early on Sunday, Bagheri Kani said he had discussed regional developments with top Jordanian and Egyptian diplomats during his second telephone conversation with the pair in the past 48 hours.
“The situation in West Asia is particularly critical due to continued crimes and dangerous adventures of the ruling criminal gang in Tel Aviv,” he said.
“The regional Muslim countries should adopt a unified and decisive position and take coordinated measures to prevent the continuation of the genocide in Gaza and the expansion of the Zionist regime’s aggression in the region,” he added, stressing that “Iran’s resolve to hold the regime to account is serious.”