Jordan Rejected as ‘Alternative’ to Palestinian Statehood
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan and the Palestinian Arab leadership reject the idea that Jordan could be considered an “alternative solution” to Palestinian statehood, King Abdullah said.
The king said it was important to seize the opportunity made available by the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which illustrates the genuine intention of Arabs “to achieve comprehensive and just peace and enhance security and stability in the region,” the government-run Petra news agency reported.
Arab states put forward in 2002, in Beirut, an initiative in which they pledged to make peace if Israel withdrew from land it conquered in the 1967 Middle East War. Besides land issues between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs, Syria, which is an Arab League member, is demanding that all of the Golan Heights, which it lost in 1967, be returned. Israel annexed the area in 1981.
The monarch was talking at an economic forum in Idaho, accompanied by his wife, Queen Rania.
