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Jerusalem Key to Mideast Peace Process: Jordanian FM
Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdel Ilah Khatib stressed on Wednesday that the status of Jerusalem is the key to a just, durable and comprehensive peace in the Middle East.
He made the remarks to reporters after US President Bill Clinton announced on Tuesday that the two-week trilateral summit between Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the Camp David near Washington failed to reach an agreement on Jerusalem, refugees, borders and security.
Khatib stressed the Palestinian issue is the corner stone in the peace process, and only by restoring the rights of the Palestinians, including the establishment of an independent state on their own soil with Jerusalem as its capital, can peace and stability prevail in the region.
Although the Camp David summit failed to reach any agreement on the prickly issues, but the participants had reached some understandings and narrowed their differences, Khatib said.
He said Jerusalem is a very sensitive and complicated issue, and from a religious and historic point of view, any solutions to its status must take into considerations the position of the holy city in the heart of Arabs and Muslims.
Israel sees the holy city as its "undivided and eternal capital" while the Palestinians wants the Arab East Jerusalem captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war as capital of their future state.
The minister stressed that Jordan will continue to keep a close eye on the issue of Jerusalem, and the status of the city must be decided upon in accordance with relevant resolutions by the United Nations.
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