AMMAN (AFP)
King Abdullah II of Jordan piled new pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to halt all settlement activity in occupied Palestinian territory at talks in the Red Sea port of Aqaba on Thursday.
Just days before a landmark visit to the region by U.S. President George W. Bush, King Abdullah warned that "a stalled peace process threatens the region's future and its security and stability," the palace said.
He said Jordan opposes "any settlement activity on Palestinian lands."
He "urged Israel to halt unilateral activities that may obstruct progress in the negotiations and called for adopting serious and practical policies that reflect its stated desire for peace."
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has warned that peace talks with Israel, re-launched at a conference in the United States in late November, cannot continue unless the Jewish state halts all settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem.
Since the conference in Annapolis outside Washington, Israel has issued two invitations for tenders for new construction, overshadowing the first two rounds of renewed peace talks and drawing rare criticism from its U.S. ally.
The king said Bush's visit to the region should "encourage the Palestinians and Israel to reach agreement and implement their commitments" under the internationally drafted roadmap peace blueprint which has made next to no progress since its launch in 2003.
The Israeli prime minister in turn "expressed willingness to move forward in negotiations with the Palestinians with the aim of reaching a final settlement of the conflict," the palace said.
Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said the prime minister had held a one-to-one meeting with the king after talks between the two delegations, but gave few details on what was discussed.
Olmert's previously unannounced visit to Jordan was his third in less than 12 months. Last May, he met the king in Aqaba. In July, the two leaders met secretly in Jordan, shortly after the Islamist Hamas movement seized control of Gaza, reports said at the time.
Jordan is one of only two Arab states with Egypt to have signed a peace treaty with Israel. |
