RIYADH: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah held talks here Tuesday with Jordan’s King Abdallah on major regional and international issues. The talks were aimed at breaking the deadlock in peace negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel.
“The talks focused on the latest developments on the Palestinian issue as well as on efforts being made to establish peace in the region,” the Saudi Press Agency said.
Crown Prince Sultan, deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, Riyadh Gov. Prince Salman and Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal attended the talks, which also covered ways of strengthening inter-Arab relations and resolving inter-Arab conflicts.
According to a statement issued by the royal court in Amman, the Saudi-Jordanian summit talks were held to focus on “efforts that are under way to ensure the resumption of effective and serious talks addressing all aspects of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.” Any settlement between Israel and the Palestinians should lead to “a comprehensive and just peace on the basis of the two-state vision,” the statement added.
The Jordanian king’s visit to Saudi Arabia comes on the heels of a similar trip to the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh on Monday, where he held talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The two Arab leaders, who reviewed the outcome of last week’s visit to Cairo by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urged Israel to stop all unilateral actions including settlement activity in occupied East Jerusalem and other parts of the West Bank.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who met Mubarak on Monday, has ruled out the resumption of talks with Israel before it stops all forms of settlement building in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.
Meanwhile, speaking to reporters in Sharm El-Sheikh on Tuesday, Prince Saud said exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal had assured the Kingdom his movement is loyal to Arab states. “I asked Khaled Meshaal whether the movement stood with Arabs or with others,” Prince Saud said referring to his recent meeting with Meshaal in Riyadh. “Meshaal insisted that Hamas was an Arab movement and that the Palestinian question was an Arab issue,” the Saudi minister said after talks with Mubarak.
Prince Saud’s visit to Egypt was part of a string of regional meetings aimed at reviving peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, which have been stalled for a year. Prince Saud and his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Abul-Gheit repeated their calls for an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Egypt seeks “the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in all of the territories within the 1967 borders, living in peace and security with Israel ... and East Jerusalem as the capital,” Abul-Gheit said.
Prince Saud called on “all parties” to adopt the Arab Peace Initiative, saying, “We believe this initiative has the potential to end the conflict between the two sides.” The initiative, first presented by Saudi Arabia at a 2002 Arab League summit in Beirut, offers Israel full diplomatic recognition from Arab states in exchange for its complete withdrawal from Arab territories and “a just resolution” to the issue of Palestinian refugees.
The Saudi foreign minister backed Egyptian efforts to reconcile Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, with the rival Fatah faction, which controls Palestinian Authority-administered areas of the West Bank. Without a unified Palestinian government, it is unclear who could credibly represent Palestinians in future peace negotiations.
Prince Saud later met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in a further sign of thawing relations between the two countries. “It is now time for serious Arab discussion and efforts, especially toward the Palestinian peace process, which faces obstacles presented by Israel,” he said after meeting the president.
