Germany urged to lead EU Mideast efforts

18 February 2004

AMMAN – Jordan’s acting prime minister, Mohammad Halaiqa, conferred Tuesday with visiting German parliament speaker Wolfgang Thierse and urged Germany to lead the European Union in rescuing the faltering Arab-Israeli peace process.

“Jordan aspires to see a strong and effective German role at the European Union to give a hand to the stumbling Middle East peace process,” Halaiqa said, according to an official statement.

“Jordan is committed to giving strong support to the Middle East peace process,” he added, “through the implementation of the road map,” the peace plan proposed by the European Union, United States, United Nations and Russia that envisions a cessation of violence between Israel and the Palestinians in the run-up to the creation of an independent Palestinian state before the end of 2005.

Halaiqa told a German parliamentary delegation that arrived earlier in the day for a three-day official visit that Jordan and Germany maintained “friendly relations in political, economic and parliamentary spheres”.

“We hope this visit will herald wider cooperation between the two countries in various fields,” he added.

Halaiqa was standing in for Prime Minister Faisal Fayez, who is on a tour of Arab Gulf states.