Jordan Times
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Jordan, Russia renew
rejection of Israeli settlement
AMMAN (JT) - Jordan and Russia on Monday called on Israel to stop its settlement
activity in the occupied Palestinian lands.
At a meeting between Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Judeh and Alexander
Saltanov, Russia’s special presidential envoy to the Middle East and deputy
minister of foreign affairs, the two sides stressed that Israel needs to stop
all forms of settlement activity, end unilateral measures in the Palestinian
territories and East Jerusalem and lift the blockade imposed on the Palestinian
people, urging the international community and parties involved to promote an
appropriate climate for the resumption of negotiations.
They also discussed international efforts to achieve peace in the region.
During the meeting, Judeh briefed Saltanov on His Majesty King Abdullah’s
efforts to launch serious and direct peace negotiations, on the basis of the
two-state solution, related international resolutions and the Arab Peace
Initiative, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.
The two sides stressed the importance of seizing the opportunity at hand to
achieve a lasting and comprehensive peace.
The two officials also discussed a proposal on holding an international
conference on the Middle East in Moscow and its goals, and the need to pursue
consultations in this regard, Petra said.
In addition, Judeh and Saltanov reviewed relations between Jordan and Russia and
means to develop them in all spheres. Emphasising the importance of the Russian
role, Judeh expressed the King’s keenness to maintain coordination and
consultation with the Russian leadership.
The Russian official also briefed Judeh on the outcome of his talks in the
region, reiterating Moscow’s support for peace efforts.
Saltanov’s visit to the Kingdom is part of a Middle East tour which has taken
him so far to Lebanon and Syria. After his visit to Amman, the Russian official
is scheduled to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories.
On Sunday, the envoy held talks in Damascus with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid
Mouallem, during which Saltanov called on Israel to stop building Jewish
settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, news reports said. The
discussions covered prospects for a Moscow Middle East Peace Conference,
bilateral relations, the peace process and various regional issues.
While in Damascus, Saltanov met with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mishaal on
Saturday to discuss the latest developments in the region, the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the process of Palestinian reconciliation. The
diplomat urged Mishaal to pursue national interests above all to “overcome the
split and restore unity in Palestine as quickly as possible”, according to
Xinhua news agency.
According to Russian and Lebanese news reports, Saltanov met on Thursday with
Lebanese prime minister-designate Saad Hariri at his home in Beirut to discuss
bilateral ties and regional developments. He told Hariri that Russia would stand
by Lebanon and is ready to cooperate to help ensure the country’s stability.
While in Lebanon, Saltanov also met with Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri and
Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.
Settler rampage
More than 30 Israeli settlers, some of them on horseback, set fire to fields and
olive trees and stoned Palestinian cars during a rampage in the West Bank on
Monday, a Palestinian official said. Two Palestinians were lightly injured.
The settlers went on the rampage near the city of Nablus in the northern West
Bank to protest the Israeli army’s removal of an unauthorised settlement outpost
in the area.
Ghassan Daglas, a Nablus municipality official, said the riot began with 10
settlers on horseback and grew to a mob of 30 south of the city, where the
settlers attacked Palestinians who passed in cars.
Daglas said smoke from the burning fields blanketed the area, but no houses were
damaged. Daglas said Israeli forces tried to stop the rampaging settlers.
Israel’s paramilitary border police force said it arrested one settler.
Israel has pledged to the US to remove more than two dozen tiny, unauthorised
settlement outposts in the West Bank, but has taken little action against them.
Hardline settlers commonly attack Palestinian property as retaliation for
demolished or evacuated settlements - a tactic they call the “price tag”. The
Palestinians oppose all settlement activity on land they claim for a future
state, and the US, which considers settlements obstacles to peace, is demanding
a freeze on all settlement construction in the West Bank.
Israel has rejected the US calls for a settlement freeze, saying existing
settlements must be allowed to expand to account for “natural growth” in their
populations.
Some 280,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements, in addition to 180,000
Israelis living in Jewish neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem. The Palestinians
claim both areas, which were occupied by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.
‘Election will resolve impasse’
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday that the way to resolve the
internal Palestinian impasse was to hold simultaneous parliamentary and
presidential elections.
“Organising elections is the solution to the conflict after the failure of the
dialogue sessions between the two sides in Cairo over these past months,” he
told the WAFA official news agency.
Abbas called on Hamas to “organise parliamentary and presidential elections to
end the problems of the internal division”. He spoke a day after it was
announced that the seventh round of reconciliation talks in Egypt between Abbas’
secular Fateh and the Islamist Hamas ruling the Gaza Strip would be postponed
for a month until August 25.
Tensions between Fateh and Hamas erupted into street warfare in Gaza in June
2007 and ended with the Islamists seizing control of the coastal strip, leaving
Western-backed Abbas’ writ confined to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Egypt has been hosting reconciliation talks during which the two sides hope to
reach a deal that would lay down an electoral law, define the make-up of
security forces and set up a committee to liaise between the Gaza Strip and the
West Bank ahead of an election in January 2010.
Abbas was elected in January 2005 following the death of veteran Palestinian
leader Yasser Arafat. Hamas swept parliamentary polls the following year,
winning 74 seats to 45 for long-dominant Fateh in the 132-member parliament.