Only Resolving Palestinian Issue Will End Terrorism

Only Resolving Palestinian Issue Will End Terrorism

By | 2010-10-29T03:35:00-04:00 October 29th, 2010|News|0 Comments

Jordan’s Prime Minister, Samir Rifai, said on Tuesday that if serious efforts to resolve the Palestinian issue take place, the problems of terrorism and extremism will end.

During a speech at the Royal Jordanian National Defense College (RJNDC) which was reported by the state-run Petra News Agency, Rifai said that Israel’s refusal to accept "a fundamental political solution to the Palestinian issue" brings on more conflicts and tensions and at the same time brings down hope to resolve the conflicts in the region.

He added that as long as the Palestinian issue maintains the status quo, more terrorism and extremism will be created.

"The Jordanian leadership believes that a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue is key to settling conflicts and problems in the region and the whole world," said Rifai. He added that Jordan supports any efforts that will lead to the creation of an independent and viable Palestinian state.

Meanwhile, the Xinhua News Agency reported that dozens of Jordanian citizens staged sit-ins on Tuesday near the Israeli embassy in Amman. They called to annul the peace treaty Jordan has with Israel, to expel the Israeli ambassador and to boycott Israeli products.

Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994. Known as the Wadi Araba peace treaty, it saw Jordan recognizing international borders but without prejudice to the status of areas restored to Israel in the Six Day War in 1967. Protests in Jordan against Israel are not a new phenomenon. In August, a group of Jordanian Islamists staged a sit-in and burned an Israeli flag in front of Jordan’s Tourism Ministry in Amman, to protest Jordanian tourism to Jerusalem and the need for a visa travel there.

That protest was organized by the Jordanian Higher Executive Committee for Defending the Homeland and Confronting Normalization. The group is associated with the Islamic Action Front (IAF), a group linked to the pan-Arab Muslim Brotherhood. IAF was also behind this week’s protest.

"Accepting the Wadi Araba Treaty is a considered recognition of the Zionist entity and a formal withdrawal of the central cause of the Arabs [the Palestinian cause]," said Secretary General of the Islamic Action Front (IAF) Hamzah Mansour during the protest.

Iran’s Press TV reported that the demonstration was also attended by Chief of the IAF Shura Council, Ali ABu Sukkar, who sharply criticized the peace agreement and said that the passage of the treaty has proved detrimental to Jordan’s economy.

King Abdullah of Jordan also criticized Israel last April, and warned that the status of Jerusalem could blow up into another war. He also stated that Jordan was better off economically before it made peace with Israel in 1994, and said that Jordan’s relationship with Israel "is at an all-bottom low. It hasn’t been as bad as it is today and as tense as it is today."

Several months later, Abdullah and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu conducted a meeting which Netanyahu described as "very positive". The two leaders discussed peace in the region, and even discussed ways for Israel and Jordan to cooperate in the fields of economy, energy, and transportation.