Jordan's king confers with Israeli defense minister

Jordan's King Abdullah II stressed in Amman that the only way to achieve security and peace is the full implementation of the Roadmap peace plan.

King Abdullah stressed during his meeting with the Israeli defense minister Shaoul Mofaz in the Jordanian al-Aqaba city the importance to that the withdrawal from occupied Gaza will mark the beginning of a successful beginning and an introduction for the Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian territories and the establish a viable independent Palestinian state.

The Jordanian king called Israel to cooperate with the Palestinian authority to provide the withdrawal process a success, and to ensure its proceeds smoothly.

On Wednesday evening, King Abdullah met with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the framework of coordinating for the withdrawal operation and warned against any inter-Palestinian differences. He also called for unifying all Palestinian forces and groups to work for building establishments which will constitute the nucleus for the Palestinian state.

On the other hand, the Palestinian and Israeli sides agreed to intensify security meetings in order to draw the final touches on the details of the Israeli withdrawal plan due from Gaza by mid August.

The meetings reviewed details of the military plans for forces of the two sides and the places of their deployment upon the implementation of the evacuation operation.

Sources indicated that the two sides are approaching agreement over the crossing border points between Gaza and Egypt to be in the presence of international observers.