Following Jordanian King Abdullah’s visit to the White House last week, Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh spoke with Middle East Progress, stressing the need for a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unlike representatives from other Arab nations, he stated that the Arab Peace Initiative does not expire, but he urged a quick resolution to the conflict. Notably, he said:
“The biggest challenge is peace. The Middle East conflict, the Arab-Israeli conflict, at the heart of which is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, is no longer something that can be described as a local or regional conflict; it’s a global conflict, and therefore it is in everyone’s interests to see peace in the Middle East. We had had too many processes, initiatives, that were all aimed at bringing about progress on the ground, and some of them did achieve some progress over the decades, however, I think people in our part of the world are suffering from peace process fatigue, we’ve had too many processes and not enough peace. But I think the time now has come to do away with the word process and spare no effort at bringing about direct negotiations aimed at arriving at the endgame that we all want to see. That is, the two-state solution, an independent Palestinian state living side-by-side with a secure Israel as part of regional comprehensive peace, which comprises a solution to Israeli-Lebanese problems, to the Israeli-Syrian problems and that will enable us as a region to tackle other challenges that we face.
His Majesty King Abdullah II always reminds the world that the Arab Peace Initiative is the cornerstone of our efforts at this stage to bring about direct negotiations, an initiative that aims at achieving peace between Palestinians and Israelis, between Arabs and Israelis and then establishing normal relations between Israel and 57 Muslim countries—not only the 22 Arab member countries of the League. I believe that there’s a stake in this for everyone, and once again, peace in the Middle East is very much a U.S. vital national security interest, as much as it is in the interest of the parties directly involved.
So, this is the major challenge. Once the Palestinian-Israeli and Arab-Israeli problem is tackled in its entirety, then it will enable us to face other regional challenges head on in a collective effort; and there certainly is no shortage of challenges in our region.”
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