The foreign ministers of Jordan, Egypt, France and Germany held a meeting on the peace process in the Middle East, while the Egyptian minister praised the normalization of the UAE and Bahrain, and his counterparts emphasized the suspension of annexation of the West Bank and the two-state solution.
The Jordanian foreign ministers, Ayman Safadi, the Egyptian Sameh Shoukry, and the Frenchman Jean-Yves Le Drian participated in a press conference in Amman, while their German counterpart, Maiko Haas, spoke via video technology from the self-isolation headquarters, where he resides after being suspected of being infected with the Coronavirus.
Shukry said that the normalization agreements between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain lead to more support for reaching a comprehensive and lasting peace in the region, adding that his country stresses the importance of reaching a comprehensive peace in the region based on international legitimacy decisions.
He spoke of his stumbling in the settlement efforts between the Palestinian and Israeli sides, and said that this matter must be overcome, indicating that his country will continue to work to enhance the chances of reaching a just and comprehensive peace.
For his part, Safadi said that there will be no comprehensive and just peace except with a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the basis of the two-state solution, which guarantees the establishment of a Palestinian state, stressing the need for Israel to announce a final halt to annexing parts of the West Bank, and to abide by the terms of the peace process.
He also said that the Palestinian issue is the core of the conflict, and that resolving it is a condition for achieving a comprehensive and just peace.
The German Foreign Minister participated in the quartet meeting via video, due to his undergoing self-isolation (Reuters)
Differences
Al-Jazeera correspondent Tamer Al-Smadi said that during this ministerial meeting, discrepancies emerged between the Jordanian and Egyptian foreign ministers, while my thanksgiving praised the Emirati and Bahraini normalization, and stressed the impossibility of achieving peace except by resolving the Palestinian issue on the basis of the two-state solution.
Al-Smadi indicated that Jordan did not praise the two normalization agreements, nor did he attack them due to political sensitivities due to its relations with the UAE and Bahrain.
During the same press conference, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that plans to annex new Palestinian lands should be permanently suspended.
Le Drian added that stability in the region must come through a two-state solution.
As for German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, he welcomed what he called the peace agreements between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain, believing that they could be extended to other countries.
Mas said that his country supports the two-state solution to end the Palestinian conflict, expressing his hope that steps will be achieved in this direction.
It is noteworthy that this quadripartite meeting in Amman is the third of its kind, as the first was held in Munich in February, and the second last July through the visual communication mechanism.