RIYADH, 11 January 2004 — Saudi Arabia and Jordan yesterday discussed ways to help revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and avoid the break-up of neighboring Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, a high-ranking official said.
Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, and King Abdallah of Jordan “talked about the need for Arabs to be proactive in the peace process as the international community is not doing much,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher said.
“We feel we have to take the initiative and talk about ways to reinvigorate it (the peace process),” Reuters news agency quoted Muasher as saying after the talks in Riyadh.
A US-backed road map calling for a step-by-step approach leading to the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005 has failed to halt the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Referring to the barrier Israel is building to cut itself off from the West Bank, the minister said: “The wall is a direct threat not just to the Palestinians but to Jordan also.
“It dilutes the prospects of a two-state solution. If that happens either the Palestinians will ask for equal rights (in a bi-national state) or they will be forced into Jordan.”
He said Arab countries wanted to revive an initiative proposed by Crown Prince Abdullah at a summit in Beirut, offering Israel normal ties with Arabs in exchange for full withdrawal from all Arab land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.
Muasher said Saudi Arabia and Jordan, both neighbors of US-occupied Iraq, also insisted that any plans for future Iraqi self-rule should avoid division of the country.
The United States said on Monday it would not act to prevent Iraqis taking potentially divisive decisions to allow some Kurdish autonomy in the north, a position likely to alarm those of Iraq’s neighbors with Kurdish minorities.
