Jordan uses EU, US to put the squeeze on Israeli settlements

Taking a bigger role in seeking Mideast peace, Jordan’s King Abdullah II met with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband – in line to be the new EU’s Foreign Minister – and then US Middle East envoy George Mitchell to urge the international community to pressure Israel to stop its “unilateral actions” in East Jerusalem and to cease building settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, a royal court statement said.
“The monarch underlined the importance of the European Union’s role, particularly that of Britain, in efforts aimed at ensuring the setting up of an independent Palestinian state, which is a prerequisite for Middle East peace,” it said. King Abdullah warned against “the dangers inherent in the Israeli unilateral actions, especially the construction of settlements and other measures that threaten the identity of Jerusalem and holy places there, and called on the international community to put pressure on Israel to halt such steps,” it added.
Miliband criticized the building of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories as “illegal” and said they represented an “obstacle” in the path of peace. “Settlements are illegal in our view and an obstacle” that impedes efforts which seek to work out a final settlement between the Israelis and Palestinians, Miliband told a press conference at the end of a one-day visit and talks with King Abdullah II. Miliband supported the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and expressed concern over Israeli violations in East Jerusalem, which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war.
“The current situation is obviously particularly tense in respect of Jerusalem. We view events there with considerable concern, along with our EU and international partners,” he said. He referred to breaking into Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli troops over the past couple of months to provide a shelter for fanatical Jews who planned to perform prayers at the shrine’s compound, according to Palestinian officials. Miliband also warned that any alternative to a two-state vision as a solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict would be “dark and unwelcome”.
The talks dealt with ways to overcome obstacles hindering the re-launch of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, the statement said in a reference to Israel’s rejection of a settlement construction freeze. Amman was the centre of a new round of diplomacy over the past 48 hours that involved meetings between Mitchell and King Abdullah as well as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who told Mitchell that the Palestinian Authority still insisted on Israel’s freeze of settlement building as a prerequisite for resuming peace talks, according to Saeb Erekat, head of the Palestinian Negotiation Department. Abdullah expressed backing for the Palestinian Authority’s attitude during a meeting with Abbas in Amman.
After meeting Mitchell, “The monarch stressed the need for continuing the US leading role, with a view to finding the suitable environment for relaunching serious and effective negotiations in the run-up for the two-state solution which the United States committed itself to achieve,” the statement said. King Abdullah also urged “a cessation of all unilateral Israeli measures, which undermine the chances of peace, foremost the building of settlements and other steps which jeopardize the (Arab) identity of Jerusalem and holy places.”  Israel annexed East Jerusalem from Jordan after hostilities in 1967. The two countries concluded a peace treaty in 1994, under which the Jewish state recognized Jordan’s right to look after all Islamic and Christian holy sites in the city. Mitchell briefed the Jordanian head of state on the outcome of his talks, with Israeli and Palestinian leaders who sought to “overcome the obstacles that impede the restart of peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians,” the statement read.
King Abdullah recalled that US President Barack Obama had committed his country in his speech before the UN General Assembly in September to achieving peace in the Middle East on the basis of the two-state vision that ensures the establishment of an independent and viable Palestinian state which lives in peace with Israel.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton talked via telephone with King Abdullah II earlier to brief him on the outcome of her talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders during her current tour of the region. .
She reportedly asked Amman’s support for its endeavors to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians even before a freeze of settlement construction. Clinton came under attack from Arab media for “coming so close to endorsing” the attitude of the right-wing Israeli government that refuses to freeze building of settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Abbas has rejected a call by Clinton to resume talks with Israel without preconditions, saying a total freeze of settlement construction was a prerequisite for the resumption of the peace process.
The Palestinian Authority would not resume peace talks with Israel until all construction in the West Bank settlements stopped, Abbas told Mitchell in Amman. “The President made it clear during the meeting that peace cannot be achieved with the continuation of the settlement activity,” Erekat told reporters after the meeting. “We do not put conditions for resuming negotiations, but we want the talks resumed on the basis of the provisions of the road map, which stipulates the cessation of all forms of settlement activity in the Palestinian territories,” he said. “Mitchell emphasized during today’s meeting that there is no change in the US attitude, which rejects the Israeli settlements,” he added.