Jordan's King Abdullah to visit West Bank Sunday, say officials

RAMALLAH, WEST BANK: King Abdullah II of Jordan is to visit the West Bank town of Ramallah on Sunday for talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, a Palestinian official said. It will be an important visit to discuss political developments in the region, Arab efforts to relaunch the peace process and the Arab peace initiative, the official said on Friday, asking not to be identified. He was referring to a five-year-old Arab peace plan, revived in March, offering Israel full normalisation of relations in return for full withdrawal from Arab lands seized in 1967 and the return of Palestinian refugees. It will be the Jordan monarch s first visit to the occupied West Bank since Abbas became president following a January 2005 election although he twice visited Ramallah while the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was alive. Abbas is, however, a frequent visitor to Amman. Abdullah will arrive by helicopter and is expected to remain in Ramallah for several hours of talks, the Palestinian official said. The royal palace would neither confirm nor deny the visit which would come just two days before Abdullah is to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at a gathering of Nobel peace laureates in Jordan s ancient city of Petra. Olmert last met the king last December and both leaders are expected to discuss the renewed Arab peace initiative in their meeting on Tuesday. Israel rejected the plan when it was first launched in 2002. Recently, however, it has said the proposal could provide a basis for talks, provided there are amendments on the refugee issue. As it stands the blueprint calls for the creation of a Palestinian state and the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes. Following talks with her Egyptian and Jordanian counterparts on Thursday, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni stressed important role the Arab world could play in helping to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The Arab League has charged Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab states to have signed peace treaties with Israel, with persuading the Jewish state to accept the plan. The Jordanian king warned in an interview published in Egypt s leading state daily Al-Ahram on Thursday that failure to make the revived Arab peace initiative bear fruit could lead to a new conflict in the region.