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Amman (AFP) Feb 6, 2011 Jordan's King Abdullah II and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas held talks in Amman on Sunday on the troubled peace process in the Middle East, the palace said. "As part of their ongoing consultations, King Abdullah and president Abbas discussed the latest developments in the region," it said in a statement. "The two leaders held talks on the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations as well as Arab and international efforts to resolve the conflict in line with a two-state solution." It was the first meeting between the king and Abbas since the fall of Tunisia's strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in mid-January and the ongoing anti-regime protests in Egypt. The Middle East diplomatic Quartet, after a meeting in the German city of Munich, said on Saturday that the current turmoil in Egypt makes it all the more imperative that Israelis and Palestinians return to negotiations. But chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Quartet's call "falls short of our expectations. The Palestinians have since late September refused to resume direct peace talks following the end of a temporary Israeli ban on building Jewish settlements in the West Bank on land earmarked for a future Palestinian state. Jordan, where nearly half the 6.3 million population is of Palestinian origin, faces popular discontent which has resulted in several protests to demand political and economic reforms.
earlier related report The veteran Israeli politician said that while the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was not the cause of much of the problems affecting the region, it was being manipulated by the enemies of both the Israelis and the Palestinians. "The dramatic events of recent days raise the need to remove the Israeli- Palestinian conflict from the daily agenda as soon as possible because the conflict is being exploited to the detriment of both sides," Peres said at a conference in the seaside town of Herzliya north of Tel Aviv. Peres spoke of the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, the political turmoil in Lebanon, the north-south split in Sudan and Iran's nuclear programme. His comments echo those of the Middle East diplomatic Quartet -- the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations, which met in the German city of Munich on Saturday. "History has lost its patience, it is happening at a gallop. Either we gallop with it or it will leave without us. There are those who say we need to wait for the storm to subside, no one knows when it will end," Peres said. Talks between Israel and the Palestinians, relaunched on September 2 after a long hiatus, fell apart weeks afterwards after Israel refused to renew a temporary ban on building settlements in the West Bank. The Palestinian leadership refuses to resume negotiations as long as Israel builds on land wanted for a Palestinian state.
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Mideast Quartet seeks to bridge widening gulfJerusalem (AFP) Feb 4, 2011 The Middle East Quartet meets on Saturday in a bid to revive Israeli-Palestinian talks, as Israel fears for its peace treaty with Egypt and the Palestinians seek international recognition for statehood. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton are to convene in Muni ... read more |
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