Jordan Times
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Gov’t urges support for Arab Peace Initiative
By Khalid Neimat with agency dispatches
AMMAN — The government on Monday called on all parties in the Middle East conflict to support the Arab Peace Initiative,
which was re-endorsed by the Riyadh summit in March.
“This war between Arabs and Israelis recalls the suffering of the Palestinians,” Government Spokesperson Nasser Judeh
said on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the 1967 war.
“It is a time to reflect... We all have to pool our efforts towards supporting the Arab Peace Initiative and returning
the parties to the negotiating table, “he told reporters at the weekly press briefing yesterday.
“Forty years on, the problem is still there and we have to work and exert every effort in a concerted way by all the
parties involved and by all those who want peace and stability to reign in this region,” Agence France-Presse quoted
Judeh as saying.
Judeh stressed that the peace initiative offers a “window of opportunity” to end decades of conflict with Israel and
paves the way for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.”
“Perhaps this is the last one to come for a while now so we all have to take advantage of this window,” he added.
The Arab Peace Initiative was first adopted at the Beirut summit in 2002 and revived in March. It offers full political
and diplomatic relations with Israel in return for full withdrawal from Arab lands occupied in the 1967 war, beside the
creation on an independent Palestinian state and the return of the refugees to their homes.
He also urged Israel and the Palestinians “to return to the negotiating table” to secure the creation of “a viable
Palestinian state next door to Israel.”