Abdullah to 'educate' US on Arab peace offer

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By Ryan Jones
March 06, 2007

Jordan's King Abdullah II arrived in Washington on Monday on a quest to educate the US administration on the importance of strong-arming Israel into accepting a pan-Arab "peace" offer.

Following his arrival, Abdullah met with Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. On Tuesday he was scheduled to dine with President Bush, and on Wednesday address a joint session of Congress.

A Washington-based Jordanian diplomat told The Jerusalem Post that Abdullah wants to "better explain" the Saudi-authored Arab League-backed regional peace initiative in order to elicit greater US participation in the peace process.

That plan, which will be the focus of an Arab League summit in Riyadh later this month, calls for Israel to fully surrender the Golan Heights, Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, and open its borders to millions of so-called "Palestinian refugees."

In exchange for taking those suicidal steps, Israel's neighbors say they will sign peace agreements and normalize relations with what would no longer be the Jewish state.

For the past several weeks, Abdullah has been strongly urging Washington to get more involved in solving the Israeli-Arab conflict along the lines of the Saudi proposal.

Until it does so, Abdullah suggested that he and other Arab allies will view America as biased in Israel's favor.

"It is our duty to push [the US]...to take balanced positions and support the peace process," the king said in an interview with Jordanian television.

Abdullah maintains that until Israel is made to accept Arab terms for "peace," there can be no stability in Iraq.

Many in Israel fear that Washington's desire to make progress in Iraq and turn Abdullah into an ally against Iran may cause the Bush administration to more fully adopt the Arab position.

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