AMMAN, 6 February 2008 — King Abdallah of Jordan yesterday told a group of European parliamentarians that he considered the year 2008 as a “crossroad” for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, according to a royal court statement. “The Middle East will be at crossroads in 2008. We have to choose between peace and stability or their antonyms,” the monarch told legislators from 25 European countries attached to the MedBridge Group.
“Therefore, the world community should help the Palestinian and Israeli leaderships to ensure future for the Palestinians and peace for Israel,” he said. Abdallah referred to the ongoing negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians on core issues — Jerusalem, the settlements, refugees and frontiers-that were launched at the Annapolis conference on Nov. 27.
He warned against the “negative repercussions” on the peace talks of Israel’s continued building of settlements in East Jerusalem and other Palestinian areas it occupied in 1967. Responding to questions from the European delegation, Abdullah ruled out normalization of ties between Israel and the Arab peoples as along as the Jewish state continued to ride roughshod on Arab countries by military force.
“The politicians should first give their peoples the opportunity to build up their future before moving to utilize opportunities of economic cooperation. It is impossible for people to move while the machine of daily killings is operating,” the monarch said.
Abdallah said that Jordan “has interests in the final status issues as the questions of Jerusalem, refugees, water and frontiers.” “Jordan sticks to the rights of return and compensation for Palestinian refugees” in accordance with the UN General Assembly resolution 194 of 1948, he added.
Israel captured East Jerusalem and the rest of West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Six-day War. The MedBridge delegation is visiting Jordan and other countries in the region as part of the group’s Parliaments for Peace initiative.
