Jordan's king meets Blair, voices support for Quartet efforts
Mubarak casts doubt on Mideast peace summit; Abbas to press PM on final status issues in Monday meeting.
By Barak Ravid Tags: Ehud Olmert Palestinian Authority Mahmoud AbbasKing Abdullah II of Jordan conferred Sunday with the Middle East Quartet's envoy, Tony Blair, and renewed his country's support for the group's efforts aimed at shoring up confidence between Israel and the Palestinians, according to an official statement.
"The monarch expressed backing for the efforts being exerted by the Quartet with a view to narrowing the gap and boosting confidence between the Palestinians and Israelis ahead of the international conference on the Middle East peace that was proposed by U.S. President George W Bush," the statement from the royal court said.
"To ensure the conference be a success, all parties concerned with the peace process should work seriously in the coming few weeks to ensure that the meeting comes up with positive results that fulfils the aspirations of the Palestinian people in establishing an independent state on all Palestinian territories," it added.
The Jordanian leader stressed the need for putting the final status issues - Jerusalem, refugees, settlements and frontiers - on the agenda of the international conference.
The talks between King Abdullah and Blair came ahead of a meeting set for Monday between Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Blair, who stepped down as British prime minister three months ago, met with Abbas on Thursday to discuss preparations for the international conference.
Blair, who is currently on a tour of the region, briefed King Abdullah on the outcome of his talks with regional leaders, the statement said.
Mubarak casts doubt on Mideast peace summit
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Sunday that without proper preparations or a clear agenda, the upcoming U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference will be a failure, echoing doubts of other regional leaders.
"Until now, I personally, see that there is no clear agenda, and I don't even know if it will be a conference or a one-day meeting as some circles recently talked about," Mubarak told reporters in response to a question about the conference, which is tentatively scheduled for November.
"The thing that I most fear is that the lack of acceptable preparations will lead to no results," Mubarak said while touring industrial projects in the southern Egyptian town of Sohag.
Mubarak's comments resemble those made by Arab foreign ministers who met in the Egyptian capital of Cairo on Wednesday to develop a unified stand toward the conference. They demanded that the meeting work toward a final settlement between Israel and the Palestinians rather than simply be a diplomatic show.
Abbas has been meeting regularly with Israeli officials for several months about ways to revive the peace process. So far, there have been few concrete results, with Israel preferring to focus on general outlines and the Palestinians pressing for detailed talks on the main issues.
On Tuesday, Mubarak, who met separately with King Abdullah II of Jordan, Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair and Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema, warned that the conference should not be another lost chance similar to previous meetings.
Mubarak also warned Tuesday that if the conference failed to produce a breakthrough, the negative repercussions would affect the whole area, increase feelings of frustration and strengthen extremism.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected in the Middle East later this month to try to get the sides to agree on an outline for a future peace agreement ahead of the U.S.-sponsored conference.
Abbas to press Olmert on Accord of Principles in Monday meeting
Abbas will press Olmert to begin drafting a proposed agreement on statehood principles during talks on Monday, Abbas aides said.
The aides said Olmert and Abbas, who will meet in Jerusalem, have made some progress in recent talks towards narrowing differences over the nature of a future Palestinian state ahead of the conference expected in November.
But Israeli officials said differences remained over the scope of any agreement - Olmert wants to keep the statehood principles vague while Abbas wants them to be detailed.
Israeli and Palestinian officials have sent mixed messages about the extent of discussions so far over final status issues that include Jerusalem, final borders, Palestinian refugees and settlements.
"Some progress has been achieved between the two leaders on some final status issues," a senior Palestinian official who insisted on anonymity told Reuters. He declined to give details.
"But nothing has been put in writing so far and we expect them to agree in Monday's meeting to ask joint committees to start drafting points of agreement," the official said.
Olmert's spokesman, David Baker, said drafting has not yet started. "Nothing is at a drafting stage at this point. We're hoping for continued progress with the Palestinians," he said.
Another senior Abbas aide Nimer Hammad told Reuters the Palestinians hoped an agreement with the Israelis would include details on how final status issues would be resolved.
"The Palestinians hope that during Monday's meeting the two leaders will agree to start drafting the points of agreement to pave the way for finalizing a framework agreement on final status issues," he said.
"These include some details on how final status issues would be resolved. The agreement points between the two leaders could be pursued by joint committees so that the sides can finalize an agreement before the November conference," Hammad said.
However, sources in the Prime Minister's Bureu told Haaretz on Saturday that Olmert's meeting with Abbas is not specifically designed to produce results for the regional conference.
The comments were in reference to a request from Assistant Secretary of State David Welch during his visit to Israel last week.
Welch asked Olmert's aides how Rice could "speed up negotiations" between the two leaders in order to prepare them for the summit.
The U.S. administration wants the talks between Abbas and Olmert to produce tangible results, Welch said. He was in the region to prepare for the visit by the Rice.
Olmert's aides said that "both Palestinians and Israelis are taking it slow. The two parties understand that it will take some time before understandings are achieved."
A senior government source said that Monday's meeting, or the meeting after that, "will determine whether conditions are right for broadening the scope of negotiations, and for work on the agreement of principles."
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Jordan was Palestine before the English started screwing around in the ME.
All one has to do is read the above, about diplomats getting together and dreaming about things that will never happen...then read some of the recent news from Syria, Hamas, and some of Israel's 5th column to know that these two groups are living on two different planets. They are deciding on agreements between themselves, and the enemies of Israel are also deciding on agreements between themselves. Both groups either talk to or threaten Israel, and both act as if the other group does not exist.
The words, tone and intent of his posts 1, 2, 4 and 5 violate beyond doubt your own Rule 3 of posting on this forum. Will you please accordingly remove his racist posts. They do this forum a disservice as they do you for allowing them to go online. Thank you.
The headline should read "king strokes poodle, hopes to not catch rabies."
With the complaints of Abbas, Fayad, Livni, Olmert, Mubarak, Abdullah and even Bibi, Lieberman, Mashal and Haniya that Washington has no agenda and hasn't even decided who to invite, I'm starting to wonder if maybe the EU or Russia should take over sponsoring the meeting. Afterall, peace is a philosophy foreign to the Bush administration. They seem about as competent in this exercise as they were in dealing with Katrina and New Orleans.
You have PLO and Hamas. Who can bring peace to you?
What do you mean "60% of it`s actual population are Pals". Jordan is a part of historic Palestine. Pals are just Arabs living in historic Palestine. So who are the other 40%?
Last week major Arab newspapers carreid front page articles that Mahmoud Abbas dispatched his long time confident and side kick, the one and only one, the competent, smart, brilliant, literate, wise, honest, well informed, and charming Ahmed Qurai to negotiate a secret deal with Israel on final status. What a brilliant decision. I wonder what would happen to the Palestinians this time. Perhaps they will be given a 25 limited residency in Palestine. Of course someone will be able to cash in on this deal like they cashed in on Oslo.
The Arabs consistently demonstrate that they don't want, can't make and won't maintain real peace. They do want, however, to visibly weaken Israel by regaining territory without 'giving' anything, least of all real peace. They ignore that "possession is nine tenths of the law" and that it's rather the Arabs who should come forward and spell out what they offer Israel in return for what they want. They also pretend not to get it that in this case "land for peace" is both immoral and unworkable. The Arabs had used the 'territories' to threaten, pester and attack Israel before we took these territories in self defence. They continue to plan, prepare and perpetrate genocide against Israel and pretend not to see that it would be suicidal for Israel to concede anything in response to their aggressive threats and action. The Arabs must realize that the only way toward peace is that rather themselves should offer, accept and be convincingly satisfied with 'painful' territorial compromises.
It is not necessary to read your posts when there's just ONE message. It's always the same, we all know it by heart. AND it's IN NO WAY the solution as the Kingdom of Jordan ALREADY HAS taken in more Palestinians than any country can absorb. 60% of it's actual population are Pals, they don't want A SINGLE ONE in addition. (Another question is how things might look once there IS an independent Palestinian state, them then talking with each other from sovereign country to sovereign country.) And you're COMPLETELY WRONG if you believe Pals do not WANT TO WORK. End 2003, when conditions were still "more normal" than now, statistically the % of workers was resp. in WestBank/Gaza/EastJerusalem 40,4%, Jordan 40,9%, Syria 49,3%, Lebanon 42,3% (plus then still 41,3% working in Israel)!!! How can they work in Gaza now if even nearly all their JOBGIVERS have to give up with the border and now also the Hamas situation???
Thanks for your firm but serene words, Mr Azoulay. Too much hatred in these Talkbacks. It's obvious that dialogue is urgently needed if one hopes to obtain peace.
that we Jews can be fascists too. It is sad to read the dumb stuff you write. What you don't get is that YOU are part of the problem too. You are the one considering himself superior to Arabs, you are the one humiliating them during your military service. You are not only part of the problem but also the cause to the problem. I decided to stop blame others, I only blame Israelis and Jews. Look inside you, if on the Palestinian side someone can do the same, we actually might have a dialoge here.
Then what is the difference between you and Hitler?
From time immemorial these Arabs have consistently demonstrated that they are utterly incapable of unaided survival, especially at the national polity level. They constantly kill and steal from each other and forever lie to themselves, each other and the rest of the world. They never miss an opportunity to make atrocious choices and mistakes and they are totally incapable of sustaining and providing for themselves; they depend on others for everything. How on earth will they ever make it?
Almost a weekly chance to get his pictures on the news, without any hopes of results. How arrogant can anyone get. He should go home in deep shame.
Israel should let Hamas to depose Abbas and smash Fatah in Judea and Samaria, or even help Hamas to do so, in order to make it easier to abolish the PA and wipe it off the world map and consciousness. It will also open the way for the Kingdom of Jordan to take charge as the only viable nation state of all the Arabs of Greater Palestine. Having got rid of the PA, Israel and Jordan should agree on the border between them in Judea and Samaria and maybe cede Gaza to Egypt that would sort it out quite smartly. Everybody, Jews and Arabs, should continue to live in peace where they are and nobody should move from their homes or land. Israelis who would thus become residents of the Kingdom of Jordan should be given rights and conditions like the Arabs in Israel.
west of the Jordan. From time immemorial these Arabs have consistently demonstrated that they are utterly incapable of unaided survival, especially at the national community level. They constantly kill and steal from each other and forever lie to themselves, each other and the rest of the world. They never miss an opportunity to make atrocious choices and mistakes and they are totally incapable of sustaining and providing for themselves; they depend on others for everything. How on earth will they ever make it?