Abdullah to US to talk peace process

Jordan's king set to urge Washington to pressure Israel, Palestinians.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Jordan King Abdullah 311 (photo credit: AP)
Jordan King Abdullah 311
(photo credit: AP)
King Abdullah of Jordan took off for Washington on Saturday, ahead of the Nuclear Security Summit.
The Jordan Times reported Friday that “efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East will take center stage” during the King’s several-day-long visit, including a planned meeting with US President Barack Obama.
On Tuesday, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal Abdullah said he hoped the US administration would announce clear benchmarks and a timeline to relaunch the stalled Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. In that interview he went on to say that because of Israel’s “actions on the ground” Israeli-Joradanian relations were at an all-time low, and expressed doubts as to Israel’s intentions concerning the peace process.
“Our relationship with Israel is at an all bottom low,” Abdullah said. “It hasn’t been as bad as it is today and as tense as it is today.”
Abdullah said he met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Ammanlast year and was optimistic at the time about his vision for peace,however, he said, “I have to say that over the past 12 months,everything I’ve seen on the ground has made me extremely skeptical, andI’m probably one of the more optimistic people you will meet in thispart of the world. And therefore, there’s been a lot of words, but theactions on the ground have made me extremely concerned about howstraightforward Israeli policy is.”
In the interview Abdullah seemed to echo Secretary of State HillaryClinton’s statement at the AIPAC convention, saying, “the currentstatus quo must not be allowed to continue.”
The Jordan Times article warned of signs that a third Palestinian uprising might be imminent.
Unless US pressure is brought to bear upon both Israel and thePalestinians to return to the negotiation table and continue buildingupon the agreements reached before, the Jordan Times article went on to say, the chances of peace are dim.