Peace failure to affect all - Jordan King

Jordan: Jordan King Abdullah II warned that Palestinians, Israelis, the Middle East and the whole world will pay a high price if the regional peace process fails, Government Hashemite sources said on Thursday.

Official media and spokesmen of the Royal House publicly spread a recorded message by the Monarch, addressed to the people attending the gala meal of the first national conference of the new J-Street Pro-Jewish Lobby, held in Washington on Wednesday night.

The cost of the failure will be too high for everyone and for the US national interest, said Abdulah II to around 1,500 participants in the Forum, self-defined as of peaceful profile, and also tackled the situation in Gaza and the West Bank.

He also emphasized the Arab-Muslim states want to boost the process, and recalled that the Arab Peace Initiative (PAI) offered guidelines for a new future, in which Arabs and Israelis can live in peace. The PAI, said the Hashemite sovereign, seeks lasting peace through a global agrement that would include the Palestinians’ right to freedom and to have a State, and guarantee Israel’s security and its acceptance in the region.

The initiative does not only entail a solution for two States, but also regional peace, and is about Israel having normal relations with all the Arab and Muslim States, because there are 57 States that still do not recognize it, said Abdulah II, whose country has maintained relations with Israel since 1994. The King also said there is an opportunity to make progress in that regard and that a great majority of Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the international community, support the two-State solution and a negotiated agreement.

He insisted that “what we need is to get involved in serious negotiations that allow us reaching the end of the game,” he demanded. Amman, Prensa Latina