AMMAN, 29 April 2004 — Jordan’s King Abdallah told Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei yesterday that Israel’s planned pullout from the Gaza Strip should be part of a “total Israeli withdrawal” from all Palestinian areas.
“Israel’s plan envisaging a unilateral pullout from the Gaza Strip should be part of a total Israeli withdrawal in accordance with the provisions of the road map,” King Abdallah said during talks with Qorei who visited Jordan during a tour of the region.
“Any final solution to the Palestinian issue should be decided by the concerned parties themselves,” he added.
According to a royal court statement, King Abdallah briefed Qorei on “Jordan’s efforts aimed at reinvigorating the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, including the monarch’s latest contacts with the US administration.”
The king’s remarks alluded to a major shift in the decades-old US policy on the Middle East in a statement by US President George W. Bush on April 14 where he supported Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s planned pullout from Gaza.
Bush endorsed Israel’s annexation of some of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank while also denying the Palestinian refugees’ right to return to their homes they were forced to quit upon Israel’s foundation in 1948.
Bush’s concessions to Israel prompted King Abdallah to cut short his US visit and return to Amman last week, pending “clarifications” from the US administration as to the implications of the president’s remarks. However, the Jordanian royal court said contacts were under way for a meeting with Bush to take place in the first week of May.
“We will shortly be involved in moves to stress that all final status issues must be subject to negotiation and that any partial solutions which excludes the Palestinians are doomed to failure,” King Abdallah was quoted as telling Qorei.
The Palestinian prime minister earlier paid similar visits to Cairo and Riyadh with a view to muster support for the Palestinian National Authority against Bush’s latest pledges to Israel and Sharon’s renewed threats to assassinate Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, Palestinian diplomats said.
