Jordan's king urges 'immediate' Pan-Arab peace move

Jordan's King Abdullah II on Saturday urged an "immediate" pan-Arab move that has the aim of re-launching "serious" Arab-Israeli peace negotiations on the basis of the two-state formula.

The monarch issued the call during a meeting with six Arab foreign ministers and the Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa, who met in Amman earlier in the day to appraise the Middle East peace process following the coming to power in Israel of a right-wing government.

"King Abdullah stressed the need for an immediate move to re-launch serious negotiations for resolving 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 over Palestinian soil," it added.

King Abdullah also called for coming up with a "unified Arab attitude so as to be able to speak to the world community, particularly the United States, in a single language" in compliance with the resolutions adopted at the Arab summit conference in Doha at the end of March.

Arab leaders backed anew the Arab peace plan which envisaged extending recognition by all Arab states to Israel should the latter quit all Arab territories (including East Jerusalem) occupied by it in the 1967 Six Day War.

During their one-day meeting, Mussa and the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, the Palestinian Authority and Lebanon, agreed to continue coordination of attitudes to come up with a unified approach in dealing with world powers, official sources said.

The meeting was also supposed to be attended by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, who was on a pre-scheduled visit to Iran.

The Arab foreign ministers held their meeting in the Jordanian capital at the invitation of Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh for "coordinating attitudes" on the peace process ahead of King Abdullah's trip to Washington before the end of April, Judeh told reporters.

"King Abdullah will relay the pan-Arab peace strategy to U.S. President Barack Obama," he said.

The Amman meeting convened against the backdrop of the arrival to power in Israel of a right-wing government, led by the Likud leader Benyamin Netanyahu, who ran on a platform that ignores the two-state solution but offers only "economic peace" to the Palestinians.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has dissociated his government from the Annapolis understanding which endorsed the setting up of a Palestinian state living in peace with Israel.