Petra News Agency
Sunday, May 3, 2009
King meets Palestinian President
Amman, May 3 (Petra) -- His Majesty King Abdullah II and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Sunday agreed that a coordinated Arab position would give momentum to efforts aimed at achieving tangible progress on the road to Palestinian statehood.
In a Royal Court meeting, the two leaders discussed the king's visit to Washington last month, whose aim was to galvanize the Obama administration to take a leading role in efforts to kickstart serious talks towards ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the basis of the two-state solution within a regional context.
King Abdullah said all efforts should be pooled to rally the world for taking practical and tangible steps to jumpstart Palestinian-Israeli negotiations as soon as possible according to the reliable terms of reference, namely the Arab peace initiative.
The King and Abbas stressed that Israel should stop all settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem.
King Abdullah said Jordan rejected Israeli attempts to change Jerusalem's landmarks, undermine the city's holy sites and evict Arab inhabitants or destroy their homes.
They said the world community should assume its responsibility to lift the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip, guarantee access of medical and humanitarian aid to Gazans and start the reconstruction of the war-ravaged coastal territory.
"My talks with His Majesty followed his tour of the United States and some Arab countries as the king had many important things after the presentation he made to President Obama and U.S institutions regarding a solution in the Middle East," Abbas told reporters after the meeting.
"We follow up on these matters and we will have issues to consult on in future," the Palestinian leader added.
Commenting on his upcoming trip to Washington, Abbas said he would go to Cairo and other Arab capital before traveling on to the United States on May 28 for talks with the Obama administration on all political issues and "our conditions for resumption of future peace talks.
" Among these, he added, were the two-state solution and a halt to settlement expansion and home demolitions, which were also the demands of the Americans for talks with the Israelis to take off.