King Abdullah II of Jordan called on the international community to support the Palestinian people in a time of ‘expectancy’ for the peace process, after talks with French President Jacques Chirac in Paris.
At a joint news conference following the talks, the king said the peace process was going through a period of ‘expectancy’ pending the formation of a Palestinian government by the radical Islamic group Hamas and Israeli elections due on March 28.
‘All parties have a responsibility to create an environment favourable to a peaceful settlement’ leading to a peaceful two-state solution, he said.
‘The large majority of Palestinians and Israelis want peace,’ he added.
Chirac suggested at the news conference that Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas could be in charge of distributing European aid to the Palestinians after the formation of a Hamas-dominated government.
The EU has warned that its 500 million euros (600 million dollars) of annual aid could be withdrawn if Hamas does not renounce violence and recognise the Israeli state and accords signed between Israel and the Palestinians.
‘We must not sanction the Palestinian people economically. They have enough problems and difficulties,’ Chirac said.
Abdullah II said it was ‘the responsibility of the international community to diminish the difficulties of the Palestinian people.’
Hamas, regarded as a ‘terrorist’ group by the West, has been the governing Palestinian party since it won elections in January. On Sunday night it presented to Abbas a proposed cabinet in which its members would hold key ministries.
At the news conference, Abdullah II also denied reports of diplomatic tensions between Jordan and Israel concerning earlier comments by an Israeli general on an alleged threat posed by the rise of Islamists in Gaza.
The king said relations between Jordan and Israel were ‘normal’.
‘The tensions were actually exaggerated by people who wanted to do so, via the press,’ he said. ‘We did not take these comments seriously. Our relations have always been built on trust.’
Abdullah II had earlier spoken of his fears of a religious war in the Middle East and urged the creation of a Palestinian state in the next two years, in an interview published Monday before the talks with Chirac.
‘When two years ago I spoke of a Shiite crescent, I was expressing my fears that under the guise of religion the political game could end in a war between Sunnis and Shiites -- such as we're seeing the beginnings of in Iraq,’ he told the newspaper Le Monde.
‘The potential risk of an inter-religious conflict is real. It would be disastrous for all of us,’ he said.
On the Palestinian territories, the king said he was ‘worried over the creation of a viable state. I think that if two years from now such a state has not been created, there will be nothing left to negotiate.
‘No one knows what the consequences of that would be for Jordan and the region,’ he said.
France is the largest non-Arab foreign investor in Jordan, Abdullah II told AFP in an interview last week.
He is accompanied on the three-day visit by his wife Queen Rania and his foreign minister, Abdel Ilah al-Khatib.
He is also expected to hold talks with the speaker of the French National Assembly, Jean-Louis Debre, and address the European-American press club in Paris.