Jordan Times
Monday, May 14, 2007
King postpones West Bank
visit over bad weather
By Mohammad Ghazal
RAMALLAH — A planned visit by King Abdullah to the West Bank to push for the
recently revived Arab Peace Initiative was postponed due to bad weather,
officials said on Sunday.
“The visit today [Sunday] was postponed because of bad weather,” a senior Royal
Court official said, hours after the King was scheduled to land by helicopter in
Ramallah. “Despite many attempts, we could not take off because of low-altitude
cloud and poor visibility.”
The official added the contacts with the Palestinians were under way to decide
on a date for another visit.
A helicopter carrying journalists and aides of the Monarch took off from the
Marka Airport, heading to the West Bank through the Jordan Valley, where poor
visibility forced the copter to return. The helicopter waited for around two
hours at the airport before flying and landing in Ramallah, where crowds
awaiting the King to arrive cheered and sang Jordanian national songs.
Jordan was affected Friday by a depression centred north of Egypt, accompanied
by gusty winds that raised dust, blocked visibility and reduced temperatures.
The weather conditions were part of the Khamsini phenomenon, which began in
March and is now at its final stages.
King Abdullah, who has not visited Ramallah for seven years and has never been
to the occupied West Bank since Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas took office
in 2005, had been expected to hold several hours of talks on efforts to promote
the peace plan.
“Bad weather was the only reason” behind postponing the trip, stressed Abbas,
who was telephoned last night by the King.
The Arab Peace Initiative, first adopted in 2002 and revived in March at the
Arab summit in Riyadh, offers Israel full normalisation of relations in return
for full withdrawal from Arab land seized in 1967 and the return of Palestinian
refugees.
Israel rejected the peace plan when it was first launched in Beirut in 2002.
Recently, however, it has said the proposal could provide a basis for talks,
provided there are amendments on the refugee issue.
Meanwhile, Abbas said he will not attend a two-day conference of Nobel laureates
in Petra beginning Tuesday due to “the turbulent security circumstances in the
Gaza Strip”.
On Sunday, a shooting ambush blamed on Hamas killed a Fateh commander and his
bodyguard and set off gunbattles in the streets of Gaza, news reports said (see
separate report).
But Abbas said he will take part in May18-20 World Economic Forum at the Dead
Sea.