Lebanon and Jordan on Wednesday, February 28, called for a resumption of Arab-Israeli peace talks on all their tracks and said UN sanctions on Baghdad should be lifted to ease the plight of the Iraqi people.
Their positions were contained in a joint statement released at the end of a day of marathon talks in Amman between Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and his Jordanian counterpart Ali Abu Al-Ragheb.
They also agreed to set up a free trade zone between their countries and to bolster relations in the field of economy, agriculture, transport, culture, education, tourism and energy, the statement said.
At the end of the meeting at Abu Al-Ragheb's state office, the two premiers stressed their "support and solidarity with the Palestinian people, its right to recover its legitimate rights and to establish an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital," a joint statement said.
They furthermore called for a "resumption of the peace process on its Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese tracks with Israel ... based on the principle of land-for-peace," the statement added. "Lasting, just and comprehensive peace in the region cannot be achieved unless it is based on the principles on which the peace process was launched and unless negotiations are resumed from where they left off," it said.
The statement was apparently referring to Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon's refusal to restart negotiations with the Palestinians where talks left off under outgoing premier Ehud Barak's administration in January.
Speaking briefly to the press, the two prime ministers also called for "a lifting of the 10-year-old UN sanctions on Iraq to ease the plight of the Iraqi people."
Abu Al-Ragheb meanwhile expressed his country's support for Syria in its struggle to "recover all of its territories" held by Israel. He also expressed his support for Lebanon in its claim on the Shebaa Farms, a territory disputed between Lebanon and Israel.
Jordan and Lebanon also "agreed to sign a free trade zone agreement" and exchanged blueprints of the accord which they hope to seal "as soon as possible," the statement said.
The two prime ministers also discussed a one-billion-dollar regional scheme for the transport and sale of natural gas between Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon and promised to hold more talks on the issue in order to set the project in motion.
Preparations for the convening of an Arab summit in Amman on March 27 were also discussed.
Hariri arrived early Wednesday in Amman for his first visit to Jordan since he formed his government in October 2000. After talks with Abu Ragheb he went off to meet King Abdullah II at his private residence and to attend a dinner banquet given in his honor by the Jordanian monarch. Hariri flies home to Beirut late Wednesday. — (AFP, Amman)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
