King Hussein of Jordan told a Beirut newspaper that he rejected an offer to meet with an Israeli leader during the Reagan-Gorbachev summit meeting in Washington last week, Davar reported Monday.
Davar quoted the newspaper A-Safir, which said Hussein explained that he turned down the idea because it would lead only to interim settlements, rather than a comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict by means of an international conference.
He would not confirm reports that he plans to have secret meetings with Israeli leaders. He insisted he is prepared to hold a political dialogue with Israel only within the framework of an international conference.
The Jordanian monarch is rumored to have held secret talks in London earlier this year with Shimon Peres, Israel’s foreign minister. During a speech earlier this month to the World Sephardi Federation, Peres made reference to the talks, appearing to confirm for the first time that they took place.
Hussein expressed hope that Egypt would participate in such a conference to dramatize its disassociation from the Camp David agreement calling for autonomy for Palestinian Arabs.
The Jordanian ruler also indicated that he was willing to resume political cooperation with the Palestine Liberation Organization if the PLO agreed to renounce terrorism and move toward political negotiations for a peace settlement on the basis of United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
