Israeli and Palestinian officials pledged to “prevent further violence” and work towards “de-escalation” after meeting in Jordan on Sunday as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict escalates sharply.
Senior Jordanian, Egyptian, Israeli, Palestinian and American officials took part in this meeting in the city of Aqaba on the Red Sea, and, after “thorough and candid discussions”, “reaffirmed the need to engage in the de-escalation on the ground and to prevent any new violence”, according to the final statement which has eight points.
At the end of the talks, the Israeli government and the Palestinian National Authority “confirmed their joint willingness and commitment” to act immediately to stop the “unilateral measures” for a period of 3 to 6 months.
This includes an Israeli commitment to “cease discussing the establishment of new settlement units for a period of 4 months and not to legalize outpost settlements” for a period of 6 months, according to the text.
“The representatives of the State of Israel insisted during the meeting that there will be no changes in the decision to regularize the situation of 9 settlements and to build 9,500 housing units in Judea and Samaria but that in the coming months there will be no new decisions regarding settlements,” said an Israeli official who requested anonymity.
According to the statement, the participants agreed to help the two sides “build mutual trust” for “direct dialogue” and are due to meet again in the city of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt in March.
According to the Israeli official, the participants reached “an agreement on the creation of a joint security commission which will examine the resumption of security cooperation” as well as a civil commission to “advance economic projects which will restore confidence” .
US National Security Advisor to the White House, Jake Sullivan, welcomed the meeting in Aqaba in a statement, stressing that “there will be a lot of work to do in the weeks and months to come in order to build a stable and prosperous future for both Israelis and Palestinians”.
“Implementation will be crucial”, he added, welcoming the roles played in recent weeks by Jordanian King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in “ensuring the conditions for the success” of the meeting in attended by the head of the Palestinian intelligence services, Majed Faraj, the head of the Israeli internal intelligence service (Shin Beth), Ronen Bar, the coordinator of the American National Security Council for the Middle East, Brett McGurk, as well as Jordanian and Egyptian security officials.
The talks aimed to put an end to the spiral of violence observed since the beginning of the year, after the entry into office at the end of December of the government formed by the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu (right), with far-right allies and ultra-Orthodox Jewish formations.
As the meeting was underway, two Israelis were killed in a Palestinian “bombing” in the northern West Bank — Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 — according to a statement from the prime minister’s office.
“The decision to attend the Aqaba meeting, despite the pain and massacres the Palestinian people are enduring, comes from the desire to end the bloodshed,” the president’s Fatah party said on Twitter. Palestinian, Mahmoud Abbas, while other Palestinian factions have denounced the involvement of the Palestinian Authority.
This is the case of Hamas, which pointed to “a break with the Palestinian national consensus, a contempt for the blood of the martyrs, an open attempt to conceal the crimes of the occupation”.
The Israeli army has multiplied for almost a year its operations in the north of the West Bank, a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups.
Since the beginning of the year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of 62 Palestinians (including members of armed groups and civilians including minors) and 11 civilians (including three minors) and one Israeli policeman as well as a Ukrainian, according to an AFP tally from official Israeli and Palestinian sources.
26/02/2023 21:09:55 – Amman (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
