AMMAN: Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who met Israel’s defense minister on Sunday, said success in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks will depend on speedy progress before extremism returns to centre stage.
"I don’t think we should put a one-year target date," Abdullah said in an interview with Israel’s TV1 late on Saturday ahead of the direct talks being relaunched in Washington this week.
"I believe words coming out of the United States are within one year (for a two-state settlement). Why wait for one year? The longer we wait, the more we give people a chance to create violence," he said.
After the opening in Washington on Wednesday, attended by Abdullah and Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas are to launch direct talks the following day.
"It is the willingness of the leaders on the second day to really solve this problem, which is really going to be the deciding factor of how the Middle East is going to shape itself over the next 10 years," said Abdullah.
A senior Jordanian official, meanwhile, said his country and Egypt, the only two Arab states to have signed peace treaties with Israel, are "cautiously optimistic, because historically such meetings have led to no success."
On Netanyahu, the official said the Israeli leader "does not want to commit to anything but he says he is in a hurry and would like to finalize it all in six months."
Jordan’s advice to Abbas was: "Try to be positive. Don’t say ‘no,’ you can say ‘yes, but’."
On Sunday, Abdullah told visiting Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak that the negotiations "should be dealt with in a serious way," the palace said. Middle East peace was "of strategic interest for the region and the world."
The king, in the television interview, stressed that Israel’s future in the region was at stake in the process being launched in the US capital after several past failures.
"We have to have the strength of our convictions to take the tough steps over the next couple of weeks and hopefully that will lead into a process that is not just between Israelis and Palestinians," he said.
"The bigger picture for the Israeli people is Israel’s integration in the Arab-Islamic world. That’s the prize. But we need to start it in Washington."
Abdullah warned the military dynamics in the Middle East had changed, with the Jewish state waging short wars on average every two years in the absence of a settlement with the Palestinians.
"Today the dynamics have changed. Conflict with Israel today is not necessarily to win against Israel but to survive. Therefore that opens the dynamics to a completely different threat towards Israel," he said.
"Is it going to be fortress Israel … or are we going to have the courage to break down those walls and bring peoples together and eventually bring full security to the Israeli people?" he asked.
"But if the Israelis and Palestinians are sitting at the table and solving their problems, then all of those elements that are trying to work for the destruction of Israel will have no longer a justification.
"What’s happening in Washington is not just about the Israelis and Palestinians. It’s about Israel’s future with the Arabs and Israel’s future with the Muslim world."
