Arab foreign ministers ended a two-day meeting in Amman yesterday by urging Israel to resume negotiations with the Palestinians at the point they were broken off last month.
The call comes after similar appeals by two Arab rulers, King Abdullah of Jordan and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, to the Israeli Prime Minister-elect, Mr Ariel Sharon. Arab leaders and analysts have expressed concern about Mr Sharon's refusal to be bound by understandings reached by the outgoing government and the Palestinians during an intensive round of negotiations at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Taba last month. At the end of these talks the two sides announced that they had come closer than ever before to reaching a final accord.
Palestinian political figures and the Arab press have been sharply critical of the Bush administration for abandoning proposals put forward by President Clinton.
Dr Saeb Erekat, chief of the Palestinian negotiating team, said that by refusing to build on the progress made in the past 15 months, the US was pushing the two sides closer to war.
A commentator in the Jordan Times claimed that by allowing Israel to drop the Taba understandings, Mr Sharon would be encouraged to refuse to implement outstanding provisions in the half-dozen agreements reached with the Palestinians over the past decade.
