Jordan Times
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
King warns of more violence if
Mideast peacemaking fails
Agencies
King Abdullah warned on Tuesday that violence and extremism will escalate in the
region unless Mideast peacemaking is quickly revived under US sponsorship, the
Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.
The King told US Deputy Secretary of State David Welsh at a meeting in Amman
that a failure to revive the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process will
increase the cycle of violence and extremism wracking the region and weaken
moderate forces.
The Monarch reiterated the priority and centrality of the Palestinian issue,
Petra said. Its resolution, he said, would provide the basis for stability in
the entire Middle East and enable an independent Palestinian state living in
security side-by-side with Israel.
King Abdullah, who also met with a group of US diplomats, warned that if there
is no acceleration in solving the crisis, the region will further descend into
chaos and violence.
Welsh yesterday held similar talks with Foreign Minister Abdul Ilah Khatib,
according to Petra.
No changes in Arab peace offer for Israel
Meanwhile, Egypt and Syria said Tuesday the land-for-peace offer should not be
changed during an Arab summit in Saudi Arabia later this month, with Israeli
leaders showing renewed interest in the plan, according to the Associated Press.
Last week, the Arab League said it will relaunch the 2002 initiative in an
effort to end the decades-long conflict with Israel. But Arab leaders said the
peace deal would not include changes Israel has been pushing.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has said Israel would not accept the Arab
peace plan as is and asked to drop any reference to the right of the
Palestinians displaced in the 1948 Mideast war to return to their homes inside
the Jewish state.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minster Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet he was prepared to
treat the Saudi proposal "seriousl".
"We have the Arab peace plan and we are committed to it as a whole. Talk about
amending it is baseless," Syrian Vice President Farouq Sharaa said Tuesday after
meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
"What we want is returning all the occupied land including Jerusalem." Mubarak's
spokesman Suleiman Awwad said Egypt also rejects the Israeli demands for
amending the plan.
"Israel cannot pick and choose from the initiative and then jump into
establishing normal relations with Arabs," Awwad said.
"The Arab plan offers full withdrawal for full peace."
The initiative is a set of principles that would offer Israel full recognition
and permanent peace with the Arab states in return for Israel's withdrawal to
1967 lines, the establishment of an independent Palestine with East Jerusalem as
its capital and "an agreed, just solution" to the issue of Palestinian refugees
in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194 of 1948.
Israel has said it has problems with the initiative, especially on the refugee
issue. But US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has indicated that she sees
the Saudi plan as a way to give important Arab support to the more moderate
Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas.
The support of relatively moderate Arab governments is also intended to
undermine the standing of Hamas, which leads the current Palestinian government
and is considered to be a terrorist group by the United States and the European
Union. Hamas is supported by Syria and non-Arab Iran, and it refuses to
recognise Israel's right to exist.
Livni is expected to discuss the initiative during her meeting Wednesday in
Washington with Rice, who is scheduled to fly to the region next week in a fresh
bid to revive efforts by the so-called Quartet of Mideast peace negotiators —
the US, EU, UN and Russia — to try to jump-start the Palestinian-Israeli peace
talks.
Israel's Haaretz daily said Tuesday that US officials were hosting separate
talks with the Israelis and Saudis ahead of the Riyadh summit.
In the past, Israel has rejected the plan's call for a full withdrawal from the
West Bank and East Jerusalem, because the return of large numbers of refugees
would mean the end of the country as a Jewish state.
The Arab League Secretary General Amr Musa flew to Riyadh on Tuesday for talks
with the Saudi King Abdullah on the agenda of the summit, which is scheduled for
March 28-29.
Last week, Saudi media reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
offered support for the initiative during talks with Saudi officials. Iran later
denied the reports.
Hamas commander killed
In Gaza, a Hamas military commander was killed on Tuesday in a shoot-out with
Fateh gunmen, shortly before the leaders of the two groups met to try to bridge
differences over a power-sharing deal.
At least seven people were wounded in the gunbattle in Gaza City.
A spokesman for Hamas' military wing, Abu Obeidah, said Allah Haddad, 35, was
killed in cold blood, and put the blame on the Preventive Security force loyal
to President Mahmoud Abbas of Fateh.
"The blood of Haddad will not be shed in vain," Abu Obediah said. "We will
punish the killers and we will not allow anyone to hide behind the cloak of any
security agency."
Preventive Security in Gaza confirmed that one of its people was wounded in a
shooting incident, but said the matter was a family feud and that the officer
was not on duty.
The gunbattle erupted after members of a Gaza City family tried to recover a
stolen car, and its passengers — members of a Hamas force — opened fire.
Deadly violence between the two factions has flared occasionally since they
reached a power-sharing deal last month. The accord brokered in Saudi Arabia was
meant to halt months of fighting in which more than 130 people were killed. But
tensions have remained high since the accord was announced.
The two factions are now fleshing out the deal, and shortly after the shooting,
Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas met in Gaza City to
try to arrive at a consensus candidate for interior minister. The interior
minister oversees some security forces, and disagreements over this key
appointment have held up the formation of a government.
Abbas hopes the coalition government will also help to end an international
boycott of the year-old Hamas government and lead to a resumption of peace talks
with Israel.
Hunt for kidnapped BBC reporter
Palestinian security services were hunting on yesterday for a seasoned BBC
correspondent kidnapped at gunpoint in Gaza City, the latest foreigner snatched
in the increasingly dangerous territory.
Alan Johnston, 44 and from Scotland, was forced from his car by gunmen on Monday
while driving home from the broadcaster's Gaza office shortly after returning to
work in the coastal strip from Israel.
From his West Bank powerbase in Ramallah, Abbas ordered security chiefs to
intensify their searches for Johnston, who was one of the few Western
journalists still based in the Gaza Strip.
"The president ordered the heads of the security services to step up their hunt
to find the journalist," said Abbas' chief-of-staff, Rafiq Husseini.
"We are searching everywhere. We hope no harm will come to him and that the
affair will be ended as soon as possible," a Palestinian security source said.
A spokesman for the government told dozens of journalists gathered at a rally to
demand Johnston's immediate release that he hoped the reporter would be freed
later in the day.
"We hope that this problem will be resolved today," Ghazi Hamad said. "The
parties that are involved in these types of acts are known and the presidency
and the government must do everything to have him released."
A special team headed by the chief of preventive security in Gaza, Yussef Issa,
has been charged with searching for the reporter, who has been working in the
increasingly volatile territory for three years.
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said during a visit to Tokyo that
officials were hoping to secure Johnston's release "in the next few hours".
"I would like to condemn with the strongest possible terms this despicable act
of abducting a foreign journalist," Erekat told reporters.
"This is something that's shameful, that is disgraceful for the Palestinians,
and I call upon all to acquire the immediate release of the BBC journalist,"
added the veteran mediator.
In London, the BBC said it was "urgently" trying to find Johnston, whose posting
was due to end next month, although they have declined to officially categorise
his disappearance as a kidnapping.
"We are working closely with the Palestinian authorities and others to establish
the facts surrounding the situation. We are keeping Alan's family fully informed
of developments," it said on Tuesday.
A spokesman for the Foreign Office in London also said the government had "no
confirmation" that the reporter was kidnapped.
The Islamic Jihad also expressed its "profound regret" over the kidnapping,
which it said "tarnishes the reputation of the resistance". Johnston joined the
BBC in 1991 and has been a correspondent in Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.
Abductions of foreigners have become increasingly common in the impoverished
Gaza Strip, with about 20 such cases in the past year.
Kidnappers normally use the hostages as bargaining chips to gain concessions
from the Palestinian Authority, and they have all been released unharmed.
The last journalist snatched in Gaza City was Peruvian AFP photographer Jaime
Razuri, who was seized on January 1 and released seven days later.
Home to 1.4 million people, the Gaza Strip has spent the last year wracked by
lethal Palestinian infighting, a Western aid boycott, spiralling unemployment,
economic depression and deadly Israeli military operations.