|
Jordanian Prime Minister Wants Palestinian Solution
by Tareq Ayyoub
AMMAN (IslamOnline) - Prime Minister Ali Abul Ragheb said that Jordan will not accept "new waves" of Palestinian refugees and reiterated the Kingdom's position on the right of return and Jordan's right for compensation for 1.5 million Palestinian refugees residing in the country.
Abul Ragheb, speaking in a closed-door joint session with Jordanian Parliament Lower House members, also played down lawmakers fears that Jordan had been "marginalized" from the final status talks between the Palestine National Authority and Israel.
Final status talks include thorny issues like refugees, water, Jerusalem and borders of a would-be Palestinian state.
"The prime minister stressed that Jordan was involved in these talks," Lower House Speaker Abdul Hadi Majali said following the session.
"But there is a difference between being part of the talks and being [well] informed in such talks. The government is not participating but it has big influence." Mahmoud Kharabsheh said.
"The memo stressed that Jordan will reject any solution that will not take in consideration its national rights, and the rights of the refugees," Kharabsheh said.
"The premier told us that Jordan is against settling Palestinian refugees in Jordan and insist on their right to head back [to British-mandate Palestine] and their right to compensation," deputy Salamah Hyari said.
Hyari said that Jordan considers Palestinians who arrived here in 1948, as a result of the ethnic cleansing launched by Israel as a result of the Arab-Israeli war, as Jordanian citizens "with full rights".
"But those who came after that are Palestinian refugees and displaced who do not have Jordanian citizenship and must go back to their homeland," Hyari quoted the premier as saying.
The deputy said that Abul Ragheb informed them that the government has established "working groups" to point out Jordan's positions regarding the final status negotiations.
Abul Ragheb said that they "either abandon their Jordanian citizenship and passport and take a two-year temporary travel document or relinquish all links with Hamas and live as Jordanian citizens," Hyari said.
The deputy said that in any case, the government would not allow them to practice any activity on the Jordanian soil "with or without the Jordanian citizenship."
Deputy Khalil Atiyah said that he would contact Hamas leaders, who are currently live in Qatar seeking their reply to government proposals.
"The ball now is in Hamas' court and we hope that they will respond to this offer," Atiyah said.
Hamas offices in Amman have been shut down for some time, and politburo chief Khalid Mish'al and three other members, Ibrahim Gosheh, Sami Khatir and Izzat Rishq, were deported from Jordan after being charged with membership in an illegal group.
The deputies said Abul Ragheb informed Misha'al regarding the government's conditions during a meeting between the two at the fringes of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) held in Qatar last year.
Meanwhile, citizens of the Palestinian city of Beer Shiba, which was occupied in the 1948 war and annexed to the state of Israel, said they reject any plan to settle them in Jordan and insist on their right to head back to British-mandate Palestine.
In a two-page statement faxed to IslamOnline, they said they "will not accept such plans to succeed."
Tens of thousands Palestinians from Beer Shiba currently reside in Jordan.
|
