AMMAN/RAMALLAH, 18 April 2007 — US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates yesterday held wide-ranging talks, with a particular emphasis on Middle East issues, in Amman with Jordan’s King Abdallah, who urged US “support” for the so-called Arab Peace Initiative that was relaunched by the Arab summit conference in Riyadh at the end of March, an official statement said.
“The king underscored the importance of extending support to the Arab plan which reflects the Arabs’ real desire in achieving peace with the Israelis and ending decades of the Arab-Israeli conflict,” the statement from the royal court said.
The monarch also called for the resumption of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians for the fulfillment of the “two-state solution, which is acceptable for both the Arabs and the world.” The establishment of an independent Palestinian state that lives in peace with Israel “represents a priority for all parties,” the king was quoted as telling Gates, who arrived in Amman on Monday night at the outset of a regional tour that also takes him to Israel and Egypt.
Meanwhile, brandishing photos of their detained loved ones, thousands of Palestinians poured into streets throughout the territories yesterday, demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Showing photos of their relatives, part of the more than 9,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails, and waving flags of various political factions, men women and children attended rallies in the West Bank cities of Ramallah, Hebron, Nablus and Jenin as well as in Gaza City to mark the annual Prisoners Day.
“No peace without release of all Arab and Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails” read one sign in the northern city of Nablus. “There will be neither peace nor security without the freeing of Palestinian prisoners,” Palestinian Prisoner Affairs Minister Suleiman (Tayssir) Abu Sneineh told the crowd gathered in the southern West Bank town of Hebron.
