Jordan Times
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Abbas briefs King
on talks with Bush
Agencies
His Majesty King Abdullah on Monday said Palestinians and Israelis should resume
negotiations over the final status issues.
King Abdullah told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during a meeting in Amman
that Jordan was ready to support the Palestinian Authority's efforts to resume
talks with Israel, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.
Abbas arrived in Jordan yesterday from Egypt to brief King Abdullah on his
recent talks with US President George W. Bush and EU leaders. Earlier in the
day, Abbas told Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak of his meeting with Bush last
week and asked for support in attempts to revive Gaza's economy, the Associated
Press quoted an Egyptian presidential spokesman as saying.
According to Petra, Abbas said his meeting with Bush was "very important,"
adding that he demanded an end to Israel's settlement activities and the
construction of the separation barrier.
Abbas also briefed King Abdullah on his talks with French President Jacques
Chirac and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
He said there should be more coordination and contacts with the Israeli side in
the coming days to tackle several issues and help resume the peace process.
Upon his arrival in Amman, Abbas said Bush still hoped to see the creation of an
independent Palestinian state within "more or less" a year.
During White House talks with Abbas last week, Bush said he was not sure a
Palestinian state would see the light of day before he ends his second term in
office in 2009.
But Abbas told Petra: "Throughout our meetings and discussions with the American
president there was no talk about such a delay. His remarks were spontaneous.
That is what I understood from him afterwards."
"The American president... hopes that a Palestinian state will see the light of
day in a year, more or less, and that the roadmap will be applied. But he did
not mean a delay in the sense of dragging it out three or four years," he said.
"We will forge ahead with the peace process despite... and we should not give a
pretext to others to stay away from it."
The roadmap to Middle East peace drawn up by the United States, Russia, the
European Union and the United Nations originally foresaw a Palestinian state by
the end of 2005.
But as peace moves came to a halt Bush last year put back his deadline to the
end of his second term.
"I believe that two democratic states living side by side in peace is possible.
I can't tell you when it's going to happen. It's happening," Bush said last
week.
"If it happens before I get out of office, I'll be there to witness the
ceremony. And if doesn't, we will work hard to lay that foundation so that the
process becomes irreversible."
Meanwhile, Israeli troops shot dead an Islamic Jihad commander in the occupied
West Bank on Monday, the most senior Palestinian fighter killed since the start
of an eight-month-old ceasefire, Reuters reported.
Islamic Jihad members fired at least three rockets towards Israel from Gaza in
response, causing no casualties. Witnesses said one hit a mourning tent for a
dead Palestinian, while the Israeli army said two landed near the border fence
with Israel.
Groups stopped such attacks last month after a flare-up in violence in which
Israel killed several men after similar rocket salvoes.
But Islamic Jihad vowed to avenge Israel's killing of Loai Assadi, 26, a top
West Bank leader of Islamic Jihad who was accused of masterminding suicide
bombings that killed 10 Israelis since the truce was declared in February,
according to Reuters.
The renewed violence threatened to unravel the frayed ceasefire and undermine
hopes that Israel's Gaza pullout last month, after 38 years of occupation, could
revive peacemaking.
The army said soldiers raiding the town of Tulkarem targeted Assadi and another
man, Majed Ashkar, killed on Sunday, because they had been planning further
attacks.
Abbas' office said in a statement the West Bank killing marked an escalation in
violence that threatened to undermine Abbas' efforts to bring calm and security.
Revenge
Though Islamic Jihad had declared its commitment to maintain "calm" until the
end of the year, its Gaza-based leader Mohammad Al Hindi said on Monday: "Calm
does not deprive the Palestinian people from responding to crimes.
Shortly before launching the rocket salvo, the group's military said in a
statement: We will not stand handcuffed while the blood of our fighters is being
shed... Let calm go to hell." Israel has said it has the right to target
"ticking bombs."
Israeli officials say Assadi was behind two suicide bombings this year, one that
killed five people at an Israeli shopping mall in the coastal city of Netanya in
July and another that killed five Israelis outside a Tel Aviv nightclub in
February.
Army Colonel Aharon Haliva, commander of the force that entered Tulkarem, said
troops surrounded a house where Assadi, long at the top of Israel's wanted list,
was hiding and killed him when he fired on them as he tried to escape. A soldier
was lightly hurt.
The army said Assadi had planned to send a suicide bomber into Israel in coming
days.
At the start of the raid, soldiers riddled a car with gunfire, killing Ashkar,
26. He was connected to both Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of
Abbas' Fateh movement.
Haliva said troops killed Ashkar after he shot first, slightly wounding a
soldier. Palestinian witnesses said he never fired.
The army has made frequent raids into Tulkarm and other major West Bank cities
and towns during a five-year-old uprising.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has vowed that Israel will never give up large West
Bank settlement blocs. Israel evacuated 8,500 settlers from Gaza. Some 245,000
Jews live in the West Bank, home to 2.4 million Palestinians.