Monday 11 May 2009

Jordanian king: Obama working on comprehensive peace deal



Posted: 11-05-2009 , 07:49 GMT

Jordan King Abdullah:

Washington is putting the final touches to an ambitious peace plan for the Middle East, Jordan’s King Abdullah has told the Times of London. The Obama Administration is pushing for a comprehensive peace deal that would include settling Israel’s dispute with the Palestinians and its territorial disputes with Syria and Lebanon, King Abdullah II was quoted as saying on Monday by The Times. Failure to reach agreement at this critical juncture would draw the world into a new Middle East war next year, the monarch noted. “If we delay our peace negotiations, then there is going to be another conflict between Arabs or Muslims and Israel in the next 12-18 months,” the King said.

Details of the plan are likely to be finalized in a series of high profile meetings during May. Among them is President Obama’s talks with Israel's Premier Binyamin Netanyahu, next week in the White House.

“What we are talking about is not Israelis and Palestinians sitting at the table, but Israelis sitting with Palestinians, Israelis sitting with Syrians, Israelis sitting with Lebanese,” said the King. According to him, if Obama did not make good his promise for peace, then his credibility would evaporate overnight.

The Jordanian leader told the British publication that the new plan includes a “57-state solution”, whereby the Arab and Islamic nations would recognise the Jewish state as part of the deal. “We are offering a third of the world to meet them with open arms,” said the King. “The future is not the Jordan river or the Golan Heights or the Sinai, the future is Morocco in the Atlantic and Indonesia in the Pacific. That is the prize.”

© 2009 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

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