Abbas, Abdullah urge world to "prevent Israel from derailing peace"

Sep 19, 2009, 14:56 GMT

Amman - Jordan's King Abdullah II and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday called on the world community to prevent Israel from 'derailing peace efforts' by insisting on the continuation of settlement activity in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, according to a royal court statement.

Abdullah and Abbas held talks at the Red Sea port of Aqaba to appraise the outcome of the latest round of shuttle diplomacy which was wound up on Friday by US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, apparently without success.

'The two leaders believe that the world community must now shoulder its responsibilities by preventing Israel from derailing current efforts aimed at relaunching serious and effective negotiations that lead to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state,' a royal court statement said.

'They also warned that losing the opportunity currently available for achieving peace will jeopardize the entire security and stability of the region,' it added.

Abbas and Abdullah pointed out that Israel's continued building of settlements in Jerusalem and other Palestinian territories 'represented the main obstacle for achieving progress in peace efforts'.

The two Arab leaders also urged the United States 'to play a leading role in the peace negotiations so as to ensure that they tackled all final status issues in accordance with a specific time table and lead to the setting up of an independent Palestinian state'.

During his latest regional tour, Mitchell held at least three meetings with Netanyahu, the last of which was on Friday, when he also met with Abbas in Ramallah and told him that he could not get a breakthrough in the drive to force a total freeze on Israeli settlements, according to Palestinian officials.