Jordan's king flies to Saudi Arabia for peace talks

Aug 25, 2009, 12:28 GMT

Amman - King Abdullah II of Jordan flew to Jeddah on Tuesday for talks with Saudi leaders to discuss the prospects of resuming peace negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel under US auspices, officials said.

The Jordanian leader is scheduled to have talks with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia as part of a fresh drive to get regional and global powers to push for talks. The goal is to get Israel to endorse a separate Palestinian state.

Such recognition could lead to an eventual end to the Palestinian- Israeli conflict.

The Jordanian-Saudi summit comes after intense Palestinian lobbying for the two-state solution in accordance with the Arab peace initiative.

Those meetings have taken Jordan's king to see French President Nicolas Sarkozy at his summer residence in southern France and to hold talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman. He has also talked with US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is currently on a European tour.

Saudi Arabia is the author of the Arab peace blueprint, which has been endorsed by Obama as a starting point for future talks between the Palestinians and Israelis.

The plan offers Israel recognition from all Arab states if it pulls out of all Arab territories it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war, including East Jerusalem.

Washington has so far supported the Arab viewpoint that Israel should freeze all forms of settlements in Arab Jerusalem and the West Bank as a prelude for resuming meaningful talks with the Palestinians.

The Israel government has refused to halt settlement activity as a pre-condition for reviving the stalled negotiations.