AMMAN: Jordan’s King Abdallah yesterday called for an immediate and unified Arab move to relaunch “serious” Arab-Israeli peace negotiations on the basis of the two-state formula.
The king issued the call during a meeting with six Arab foreign ministers and the Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, who met in Amman earlier in the day to review the Middle East peace process in the light of the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu coming to power in Israel.
King Abdallah stressed the need to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the basis of the two-state formula and in accordance with the agreed references, particularly the Arab peace initiative, a royal court statement said.
“The monarch underscored the importance of the time element in the negotiation process which should unequivocally seek the implementation of the two-state solution, the establishment of comprehensive peace, regaining all Arab rights and setting up an independent Palestinian state on Palestinian soil,” it added.
King Abdallah also called for evolving a unified Arab stance so they could speak to the world community, particularly the United States, in a single language in compliance with the resolutions adopted at the March Arab summit in Doha.
Arab leaders backed anew the Arab peace plan which envisaged recognition of Israel by all Arab states in exchange for Tel Aviv vacating all Arab territories it occupied in the Six-Day War in 1967, including East Jerusalem.
During their meeting, Moussa and the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, the Palestinian Authority and Lebanon agreed to continue coordination to arrive at a unified approach in dealing with world powers, official sources said.
The ministers held the meeting here at the invitation of Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh ahead of King Abdallah’s trip to Washington later this month. “King Abdallah will relay the pan-Arab peace strategy to US President Barack Obama,” Judeh told reporters.
