Mr. Netanyahu goes to Aqaba
I told you so. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made a 'surprise' trip to Aqaba on Thursday to meet with Jordan's King Abdullah.The brief visit to Jordan's capital [Um, no, Aqaba is not the capital. CiJ] comes ahead of the prime minister's trip to the US on Saturday night and his meeting with US President Barack Obama on Monday.Hmmm.
Abdullah, who met Obama last month, was the first regional leader to meet the new US president.
During a visit to Berlin earlier this month, Abdullah said Israel, Syria, Lebanon and other Arab nations should sit down together to try to resolve the Middle East conflict under a new "combined approach," which he said was currently under discussion with the US.
Speaking to NBC's "Meet the Press" at the end of April, Jordan's king urged Obama to take a more forceful role in the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians, warning of a new Mideast war if there is no significant progress in the next 18 months.
Abdullah has called on Netanyahu to support the Arab peace initiative, endorsed in 2002 by the 22 members of the Arab League, which calls for Israel to return to the pre-1967 borders.
Netanyahu has been trying to forge cooperation with moderate Arab nations against the threat posed by Iran and its regional proxies, Hizbullah and Hamas.
On Monday, he met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Sharm e-Sheikh and said Israel expected Egyptian "help in the struggle against extremists and terrorists who threaten peace." He also said he hoped for an immediate renewal of negotiations with the Palestinians.
Although Thursday's trip to Jordan was not formally publicized ahead of time, government sources said some two weeks ago that Netanyahu and Abdullah might meet prior to the former's trip to the US.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:13 PM
1 Comments:
I can only imagine what Netanyahu told Mubarak and what he'll tell Abdullah. As long as Iran remains a threat, don't expect talks with the Palestinians to resume any time soon. And he'll take that same message to Obama on Monday.
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