AMMAN — Ten deputies filed a petition on Thursday calling on Lower House Speaker Atef Tarawneh to designate a session for general discussion over the ongoing Middle East peace talks and results of US Secretary of State John Kerry's visit to Jordan.
The MPs, led by Deputy Mustafa Yaghi (Balqa, 4th District), want to bring the ongoing debate on the US-mediated peace talks to Parliament.
“We are a substantial part of this debate,” Yaghi said, indicating that Parliament is the first place where such issues should be addressed.
He said the request was made based on internal debates in the Lower House among several MPs.
The signatories to the memo want to hear the government's point of view on the ramifications of Kerry's visit and what it means to the Palestinian issue, Jordan and the region. They also want to know more about Jordan's role in the ongoing negotiations.
Kerry met with His Majesty King Abdullah and senior Jordanian officials this month. He was here to provide his vision over a potential solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
However, Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour recently stressed that nothing was clear yet, and that he expects Kerry to come back to the region in the next few days with what he described as a “detailed proposal” to be submitted to all parties.
The US diplomat, who has been leading substantial efforts to push peace negotiations forward, did not submit a clear plan but explored means to bring the two parties closer in terms of their stances on final status issues.
On Tuesday, the premier advised against “jumping to conclusions” at this stage. He said Kerry was examining points of view of both the Palestinians and the Israelis, and is expected to come back with a detailed proposal for both sides.
However, local observers and former senior officials have expressed concern over the possibility that the Middle East conflict will be resolved by making Jordan an “alternative homeland for the Palestinians”.
Senior officials have repeatedly said that Jordan will not accept any solution to the conflict that would compromise its strategic interests.
Earlier this month, King Abdullah met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and stressed that Jordan deems protecting its higher strategic interests a top priority, especially those pertaining to final status issues between Israel and Palestine.
In remarks to the media during his visit, Abbas said that Palestine will keep Jordan abreast of any developments in the peace negotiations.
