‘Viable Palestinian state main objective for us.’ Abdullah (L) with Abbas
Photo: AP
Jordan king: 2 years left to win Mideast peace
King Abdullah tells Al Arabiya TV ‘I fear if this short time is over and we don’t reach a settlement that there will nothing left for the Palestinians to negotiate over,’ appeals to Hamas to adopt pragmatic approach
Jordan’s King Abdullah said on Sunday only two years were left to forge an Arab-Israeli settlement that could bring lasting peace.
In an interview with Arab satellite television station Al Arabiya to be aired on Sunday, the monarch said the peace process was at a critical juncture.
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“Everyone has to remember that the time available to us for a peaceful settlement is around two years, and I fear if this short time is over and we don’t reach a settlement that there will nothing left for the Palestinians to negotiate over,” he said in a transcript of the interview released to Reuters.
New Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he plans to impose final borders for Israel by 2010. In the absence of peace talks with the Palestinians, his plan calls for isolated Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank to be evacuated, but major ones to be retained and expanded behind a fortified border.
“Frankly we are concerned about what is happening either as regards to Jerusalem or settlements and so the creation of a viable Palestinian state is a main objective for us and a legitimate right for Palestinians,” the king said.
He echoed Arab worries about the prospects for peace after the election of the new Israeli government under Olmert and a new Palestinian government led by Hamas.
“What is required now from peace advocates in the region is to work on continuing the momentum in the peace process and build on what has been achieved so that we don’t lose this historic opportunity,” he said.
Realism
He appealed to Hamas, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, to adopt a pragmatic approach. But he stopped short of calling on the Islamist group to recognise the Jewish state.
“We hope our Palestinian brothers and especially our brothers in Hamas deal with everything that relates to the Palestinians’ cause with complete realism, and take into account the position of the world around us and many facts and developments that cannot be ignored or reversed,” he said.
Hamas won elections in January and formed a government in March. The United States and the European Union have cut off direct aid to the Palestinian Authority because Hamas has not renounced violence, recognised Israel or agreed to abide by interim peace deals.
Jordan and its moderate Arab allies want the Hamas-led government to accept an Arab peace initiative which offers Israel peace and normal relations in exchange for withdrawal from land it occupied in the Middle East war of 1967.
The king, a staunch U.S. Ally, said he hoped a meeting of the “Quartet” of Middle East peace brokers—Russia, the United States, the EU and the United Nations—in New York on Tuesday would push the stalled “Road map” for peace, drafted in 2003, which seeks a negotiated two-state solution.
Israel has since started building a barrier in the West Bank between Israeli and Palestinian areas.
“I hope the quartet will work on activating the road map to push the peace process forward so that the opportunity is not lost and we can go back to the point we began years ago,” the king added.
