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West Bank land wont give Israel security: Jordan
AMMAN - Israel will not gain security by holding on to territory beyond what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called its indefensible 1967 West Bank border, Jordans foreign minister said.It's worked so far... Netanyahu said this week he was ready to withdraw from parts of the West Bank, captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, to reach peace with Palestinians. But he dismissed a call from U.S. President Barack Obama that the pre-conflict borders should form the basis for talks on creating a Palestinian state. I have serious reservations about the Israeli prime minister saying these lines are indefensible and we cannot go back to them, Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh told Reuters in an interview in the Jordanian capital Amman. It is peace that will bring Israel security ..., not increasing the width of Israel or finding a military solution to defending the borders of Israel. Peace would be great, but the Arabs won't let Israel have peace. So land works. In a speech to the U.S. Congress on Tuesday, Netanyahu also urged Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to tear up last months reconciliation pact with the Islamist Hamas movement, promising to be generous with West Bank land if Abbas would make peace. Abbas replied that Netanyahu was offering nothing we can build on for peace. The basis of (a) Palestinian state should be the 1967 lines, with agreed land swaps subject to agreement between the two parties, Judeh said. We in Jordan are not just an observer in this. It is the supreme Jordanian national interest to see this independent Palestinian state established on Palestinian soil. And not on Jordanian soil... Jordan ruled the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, before the June 1967 war and most of its population are of Palestinian origin. It says the main issues in peace talks Palestinian refugees, borders, security, water supplies and the status of Jerusalem all have an impact on the Hashemite kingdom. Jordan signed a peace accord with Israel in 1994. Posted by: Steve White 2011-05-28 |
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