New York- Amid a week of intensive diplomatic activity, Jordan’s Foreign Minister Salaheddin Al Bashir met today, together with the Arab Foreign Ministers, with the Foreign Ministers of the three Permanent members of the UN Security Council (the United States, France and the United Kingdom) in which the P3 presented a draft presidential statement of the UNSC addressing the situation in Gaza.

Al Bashir said Jordan and the Arab states "did not accept" the statement and pressed ahead for a UN Security Council resolution that enforces an immediate ceasefire, enshrined in the Arab draft proposal presented to the UNSC, "to halt the Israeli military operations in Gaza and end the collective punishment of the Palestinian civilian population." Al Bashir also stressed the urgent need to address the humanitarian crisis in the strip deploring Israel’s aggression that has killed more than 600 Palestinians.

Earlier today, Al Bashir and the Arab Foreign Ministers met with  U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the U nited Nations headquarters in which he continued to stress that there is no military solution to the conflict as have previous experiences proven adding that such actions threaten efforts to reach a peaceful solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the basis of the two-state solution that ensures the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

Al Bashir reiterated calls by His Majesty King Abdullah to the international community to take action immediately after Israel’s military offensive ends in order to press ahead with serious peace negotiations in order to achieve a peaceful resolution of the conflict that leads to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and ensures security and stability across the region.

 

Jordan “will continue to press for an immediate ceasefire at the international body, to stop the fighting, prioritize the entry of humanitarian and medical assistance into Gaza in order to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people and find an international monitoring mechanism to oversee the ceasefire and ensures all parties’ adherence to it," stressed Al Bashir.

 

In his statement before the UN Security Council yesterday, Al Bashir welcomed the Egyptian initiative, which he said, represents an “incentive” to end the onslaught immediately.