AMMAN, 14 November 2007 — Jordan’s King Abdallah flew to Berlin yesterday on a two-day official visit and talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on latest moves to push forward the Middle East peace process, officials said.
High on the agenda is a US-sponsored international conference due to be held at Annapolis, Maryland, later this year for jump-starting peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, they added.
Abdallah is leading a campaign to ensure that core issues — Jerusalem, refugees, settlements and frontiers — are drawn on the agenda of the meeting with the avowed aim of forging a peace pact between Israelis and the Palestinians.
Meanwhile, four Jordanian prisoners transferred from Israel earlier this year are on a hunger strike to press their demand for better prison conditions, a representative for their families said yesterday. The four men, who are being held at Qafqafa prison, 60 kilometers north of Amman, have staged the hunger strike five days ago “because the government continues to ignore their demands for better incarceration conditions,” said Saleh Ajlouni, head of the Committee of Families of Jordanian Prisoners.
“The men are war heroes, not prisoners and must be treated in that manner,” he added. The four prisoners — Khaled Abu Ghalyoun, Salem Abu Ghalyoun, Sultan Ajlouni and Amin Saneh — were transferred by Israel to Jordan in July after an agreement was reached for them to complete their sentence terms in the country.
