Jordan Times
Monday, June 19, 2006
Jordan, Egypt urge
Palestinian factions to discard differences
King, Abbas concerned about economic, security deterioration in
territories
Agencies
King Abdullah and Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak on Sunday urged Palestinian factions to discard their differences and
preserve national unity and interests, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.
The King, who briefly visited Sharm El Sheikh after holding talks yesterday in
Amman with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, agreed with Mubarak that any
unilateral moves by Israel will have grave repercussions. The Monarch and the
Egyptian president said the Palestinian side should be a powerful and active
partner in the peace process, which should be in line with the roadmap. In a
joint press conference after the meeting, Foreign Minister Abdul Ilah Khatib and
his Egyptian counterpart Ahmad Abul-Gheit described the King-Mubarak talks as
“very positive.”
Khatib said there was “a dire need for coordination [between the two countries]
at this extremely crucial and sensitive stage.” The ministers said the two
leaders discussed means to channel aid to the Palestinians. Abul-Gheit was
quoted by Agence France-Presse as saying that an EU mechanism for the
Palestinians approved by the Quartet was “limited.”
“The scope of the mechanism is limited, does not incorporate all the aid and has
a limited time period,” he said.
Khatib said the decision of the Quartet was a positive step.
“It is necessary to continue to study ways to improve the mechanism with the
Quartet,” he added.
The diplomatic Quartet on Middle East peace — which brings together the United
States, the EU, the United Nations and Russia — Saturday endorsed a EU proposal
for a temporary mechanism to funnel aid to the Palestinians, bypassing the
Islamist movement, Hamas, which formed the Palestinian Cabinet after winning
legislative elections in January.
The EU package is worth an estimated 100 million euros ($126 million).
On Saturday, Abbas said after meeting Mubarak in Cairo that the aid mechanism
was “not adequate” because it “cancelled the role of the government.”
The EU is by far the largest aid donor to the Palestinians, giving some 500
million euros a year. But it froze some of those funds in April after Hamas was
swept to power.
The Islamist movement was deemed a “terrorist organisation” by both the EU and
the US.
Earlier Sunday, King Abdullah and Abbas said they were concerned about the
economic and security deterioration in Palestinian territories, Petra said.
King Abdullah urged an end to military escalation and called for calm and the
resumption of peacemaking between the Palestinians and Israelis.
The King also briefed Abbas on the outcome of his recent talks with Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Meanwhile, Abul-Gheit rejected as baseless that Egypt was mediating between
Jordan and Syria, stressing that the two leaders’ talks focused on the
Palestinian issue.
In remarks to the Egyptian weekly Akhbar Al Youm Saturday, Mubarak said his
meeting with King Abdullah was aimed at “sorting out differences between Syria
and Jordan,” according to AFP.
Mubarak is due to meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad on Tuesday in Egypt.