Last update - 00:00 01/07/2007
Jordanian PM meets UN envoy to Quartet, urges resumption of serious talks
By Aluf Benn, Yuval Yoaz and Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondents
Jordanian Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit conferred on Sunday with the new United Nations envoy to the Quartet of Middle East negotiators, Michael Williams, and urged "real and serious" peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, an official statement said.
"The prime minister underscored the importance of reviving the peace process through real and serious negotiations in accordance with a definite timetable and in such a manner that ensures the regaining of the Palestinian people's legitimate rights," the statement said.
Bakhit pointed out that any new peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians should lead to the establishment of an "independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, and resolving the problem of Palestinian refugees."
"The opportunity enshrined in the Arab peace initiative should be seized in reaching the purported peace in the region," he said.
Bakhit reiterated Jordan's support for the Palestinian legitimacy as represented by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and "urged the world community to lend backing to the Palestinian Authority in its endeavours to restore the Palestinian unity."
He also cautioned against the possible "deterioration of humanitarian circumstances in the Gaza Strip" following the territory's takeover by the radical Hamas group two weeks ago.
On his part, Williams briefed Bakhit on the outcome of his visit to the Palestinian territories, where he met Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayad, the statement said.
Williams recently replaced Alvaro de Soto, who had said in a leaked report that the international quartet on the Middle East should be abandoned as the UN's policy had become a "side-show" and failed to try and fulfil US and Israeli interests.
The four Jordanian prisoners, who will be transferred to Jordan to serve out the remainder of their life sentences, could potentially be pardoned by Jordan's King Abdullah 18 months after they are moved to a Jordanian prison.
The cabinet on Sunday approved transfer of the four Jordanian prisoners, convicted of murdering two Israel Defense Force soldiers, as a gesture of goodwill toward the Jordanian government.
Three of the prisoners, who were Jordanian policemen, infiltrated Israel from Jordan in November 1990, sparking a firefight that killed IDF Captain Yehuda Lifshitz. The other killed Sgt. Pinchas Levy.
Prime Minster Ehud Olmert pledged a few months ago to King Abdullah of Jordan to reevaluate the possibility of freeing the four, and transferred the matter to the Justice Ministry.
It is common international practice to transfer foreign prisoners back to their home countries to finish out their sentences after a certain period of time, the basis on which the Justice Ministry is scrutinizing the case.
Jordan has raised the matter of its prisoners in Israeli jails a number of times in recent years, and the issue has become a major problem in bilateral relations.
Cabinet Secretary Israel Maimon said at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem that in accordance with a special agreement struck between the two countries, the prisoners will remain in the Jordanian prison for at least another 18 months. After the end of 2008, King Abdullah will have the authority to pardon them.
The fact that the prisoners could be released in 2009 was not mentioned in the draft proposal presented to the cabinet ahead of the vote. The proposal said the prisoners would serve out the entire life sentence in Jordan.
At the cabinet meeting, Olmert said the transfer was approved as a gesture to Jordan, and added that though the two countries had been negotiating the issue for a long time, he felt that this was a good time to act.
While Ariel Sharon was prime minister, approximately 10 Jordanian prisoners were released as part of the "Tennenbaum swap" with Hezbollah, and another seven in April 2005. All were convicted of relatively minor offenses.
Sharon was opposed to the release of prisoners "with blood on their hands" and rejected repeated requests to release the four murderers of the IDF soldier, one of whom is the brother of a Jordanian member of parliament.
Another 20 Jordanian prisoners are in Israeli jails, some of whom have been incarcerated since before the signing of the peace treaty with Jordan in 1994.
Another problem preventing their release is the refusal of President Moshe Katsav to sign their pardons. It is unclear whether Katsav's temporary incapacity and replacement by Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik will smooth the way in the matter of the four prisoners.
King Abdullah raised the prisoner issue in his latest meeting with Olmert in December, after which Israel permitted 30 people, all first-degree relatives of the convicts, to visit them in prison for the first time.
Lifschitz was killed when he encountered the three Jordanians in the Jordan Valley in November 1990. The three were sentenced to life in prison. The fourth member was sentenced to 25 years in jail.