By NNN-KUNA
Cairo : There is constant coordination among leaders of Egypt, Jordan, and Palestine to push forward the Mideast peace process, emphasized Egyptian foreign minister Ahmad Abulgheit and his Jordanian counterpart Salahuddin al-Bashir, at a joint conference they held here on Wednesday.
The two ministers were holding the conference in the wake of the summit here that brought togehter Jordan’s King Abdulla II, Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak, and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
Abulgheit said that his country’s policy of support to the Palestinian cause, to the road map to peace, and to the Annapolis conference conincided with that of Jordan’s.
On the tripartite summit that took place earlier, Abulgheit noted that it dealt mainly with the prospects of the Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations, consequences of the recently-concluded Arab summit in Damascus, and the situation in Lebanon and Iraq.
He said all three leaders shared more or less the same views on these seminal issues in the region.
On whether or not the three leaders had formulated any novel idea on how to approach the Lebanese dilemma, Abulgheit in effect said they had not but they expressed their support for the Arab Initiative on Lebanon, which was well propounded at the summit in Damascus.
With regard to fears that Mahmoud Abbas might come under pressure when he visits Washington, Abulgheit said that no such fears existed among Egyptian officials, emphsizing at the same time that US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice will make a return visit to the region next May.
As for Rice’s latest tour of the area, Abulgheit said it was satisfactory but hoped that Israel would start the removal of barries stalling the growth of the Palestinian economy.
On his part the Jordanian foreign minister reiterated Arab abidance by peace as a strategic choic in the Arab-Isaeli conflict, while underscoring his country’s support of the Egyptian stance regarding Israeli settlements on Palestinian territories and pointing out that such settlements are banned by the articles of the road map to peace.
These settlements, he cautioned, could be the nail in the coffin of the peace process in the region.