Jordan's king meets Mitchell, stresses US 'leading role' in Mideast

Amman - Jordan's King Abdullah II conferred Monday with US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, underlining the "leading" US role in ensuring the relaunch of "serious" peace negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel, according to a royal court statement. "The monarch stressed the need for continuing the US leading role, with a view to finding the suitable environment for relaunching serious and effective negotiations in the run-up for the two-state solution which the United States committed itself to achieve," the statement said.

King Abdullah also urged "a cessation of all unilateral Israeli measures, which undermine the chances of peace, foremost the building of settlements and other steps which jeopardize the (Arab) identity of Jerusalem and holy places."

Israel annexed East Jerusalem from Jordan after hostilities in 1967. The two countries concluded a peace treaty in 1994, under which the Jewish state recognized Jordan's right to look after all Islamic and Christian holy cites in the city.

Mitchell briefed the Jordanian head of state on the outcome of his talks, with Israeli and Palestinian leaders who sought to "overcome the obstacles that impede the restart of peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians," the statement read.

King Abdullah recalled that US President Barack Obama had committed his country in his speech before the UN General Assembly in September to achieving peace in the Middle East on the basis of the two-state vision that ensures the establishment of an independent and viable Palestinian state which lives in peace with Israel.

In a related development, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton talked via telephone with King Abdullah II earlier Monday to brief him on the outcome of her talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders during her current tour of the region.

Clinton came under attack from Arab media on Monday for "coming so close to endorsing" the attitude of the right-wing Israeli government that refuses to freeze building of settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has rejected a call by Clinton to resume talks with Israel without preconditions, saying a total freeze of settlement construction was a prerequisite for the resumption of the peace process.