AMMAN, 9 January 2008 — Jordan’s King Abdallah met yesterday with the Middle East quartet’s envoy, Tony Blair, to discuss latest moves aimed at pushing forward the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, a royal court statement said.
“The monarch underscored the importance of retaining the momentum generated at the Annapolis conference” on Nov. 27 with a view to helping the Palestinians and Israelis to reach a peace agreement that involves the creation of an independent Palestinian state, it added.
Abdallah urged a continuation of world economic aid to the Palestinian Authority and called on the quartet to help speed up the implementation of decisions of the Palestinian donors conference in Paris on Dec. 17.
On his part, Blair briefed the monarch on the “quartet’s efforts aimed helping the Palestinian government to bolster the Palestinian institutions,” the statement said. The Middle East quartet comprises the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.
Meanwhile, the National Center of Human Rights (NCHR) yesterday cast doubt on the fairness of the parliamentary elections that were held in the country on Nov. 20. In a 23-page report, the state-funded body reported several violations, which it said were committed before and during the polling process.
“The violations of the election law itself cast heavy doubt on the conformity of the election process in the country with the international and national standards relating to the poll fairness,” the report said.
The NCHR questioned the constitutionality and the legality of the election law, saying it was enacted in 2001 as an “interim law” and the successive parliaments failed to put it into serious discussion.
The country’s human rights watchdog criticized the massive shift of voters from one constituency to another during the voting day and the “discrimination” in terms of allowing certain candidates access to electorate lists and withholding them from others.
It also cited the failure of the authorities to conduct “deterrent” judicial proceedings against those involved in vote buying practices and the harassment by security organs against certain candidates and their supporters.
