Sheikh Mohammed Ali Jaabari, the Mayor of Hebron, wants a Palestinian to replace United Nations special envoy Gunnar V. Jarring as mediator of the Middle East conflict. Jaabari said in a radio interview last night that the Jarring mission has failed and that a Palestinian personality would be best qualified to mediate a peace settlement between Israel and the Arab states.
Jaabari suggested several possible candidates including the former Jordanian Defense Minister Anwar Nusseibe and the former Jordanian Commissioner for Jerusalem, Anwar el Khatib. Both are residents of East Jerusalem.
Mayor Jaabari was host to Israel’s Transport Minister Shimon Peres yesterday. He told the Israeli official that the Israel Army was treating the Arab population on the West Bank fairly. He asked Peres to use his influence to increase the number of residents from neighboring Arab states permitted to visit their relatives on the West Bank. Peres remarked that the situation between the Jordan River and the sea, as it exists today, is the best testimony to peaceful coexistence between Arabs and Jews.
Mayor Jaabari, who maintains friendly relations with both Israeli and Jordanian officials, has been invited to visit Amman by King Hussein. The invitation was contained in a letter from the Jordanian ruler which travelers delivered to the Hebron Mayor from Amman. The invitation was seen as a step toward reconciliation between the Hashemite regime and the traditional Arab leadership on the West Bank. Mayor Jaabari has been a strong advocate of a separate Palestinian entity, a possibility that Amman views with disfavor.
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