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Since Monday, King Abdullah II and Queen Rania of Jordan have been in Washington, DC where they have been meeting with politicians and participating in forums. This is the second working visit to the United States for Their Majesties since last year’s Arab Spring.
 Click here to see more photos of the press conference The King met with U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday and the two held a brief press conference in the Oval Office. They discussed Syria and the ongoing Mideast Peace Process.
Both leaders denounced the violence in Syria. King Abdullah was the first Arab leader to call for President Bashar al-Assad to step down, and Obama agreed that they were “continuing to see unacceptable levels of violence inside that country” and went on to say that the U.S. will “continue to consult very closely with Jordan to create the kind of international pressure and environment that encourages the current Syrian regime to step aside so a more democratic process can take place inside of Syria.”
The King was asked about the stalled peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, and he answered, “We have to keep our fingers crossed and hope that we can bring the Israelis and Palestinans out of the impasse.”
Accompanying the Jordanian King and Queen is their eldest son, Crown Prince Hussein. After his father finished meeting with President Obama, Hussein and the King met with Vice President Joe Biden and the Secretary of Defense. These meetings are likely meant to prepare the Crown Prince for his future role as King of Jordan. After all, he will be 18 years old later this year.
While her husband and son were visiting with Washington’s most powerful, Queen Rania was not sitting around. On Tuesday, she attended a United Nations Foundation luncheon at the Newseum. As a board member, Rania discussed ways to make the world better for women and for children.
Her Majesty later attended the event 10×10 – Educate Girls. Change the World.
For Wednesday, King Abdullah met with Treasurer Timothy F. Geithner and talked about the U.S. – Jordanian economic links, and the possibility of providing financial aid to the Hashemite Kingdom. Also at the meeting was Jordanian Prime Minister Awn Khasawneh.
Also that day, the King met with Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who called for Abdullah to do the following:
“Jordan has not yet appointed an ambassador to Israel in the year and a half since the previous ambassador moved on, and I would strongly encourage you to do so,” she told him.
Ros-Lehtinen also agreed with him that the Syrian President should resign.
“I share that view because Iran is certainly doing all it can to keep Syria afloat but the people are rising up,” she said.
On Thursday, King Abdullah II will address the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Sources: USA Today, The Royal Forums, Petra, AFP
Shimon Peres, the President of Israel, is on a four day state visit to Spain. This is to mark 25th anniversary of the two nations’ diplomatic ties, despite Spain’s past mistreatment of its Jewish population. Peres was welcomed by the Spanish royal family, whom he had lunch with at the royal palace.
 Terra Noticias During the meal, King Juan Carlos expressed his support for the Mideast peace process. His Majesty said in a speech that he hoped Israel and the Arab nations will move “toward a more stable political situation, social and economic progress, according to the legitimate aspirations of the peoples of the region.”
The King went on to say he hopes that “in the coming months, Israelis and Palestinians will manage to resolve their differences in pursuit of a common future in peace and full security for the two states.”
“The road to peace that is hard and difficult” but “now we can not, Mr. President, to forget that peace in the Middle East is a long-awaited need for Israelis and Palestinians,” stressed Juan Carlos, prior to appeal this end the “tenacity” and “clairvoyance” of Peres.
Furthermore, the King emphasized the “strong and unequivocal commitment” to the Crown of Spain as a whole in the fight against anti-Semitism, through initiatives such as knowledge and appreciation of Jewish fact in education, recalling that the Judeo-Spanish heritage forces “to be particularly sensitive to the yearnings of the Jewish people.”
Prior to the lunch, King Juan Carlos and President Peres opened the Casa-Sefarad Israel, not too far from the palace. The facility, created in 2006, aims to promote friendly relations and cooperation between Spain, Israel and Jewish communities around the world, which develops activities of all kinds, and is part of the network of institutions in which Spanish register Casa de America, Asia House, Casa Árabe, Casa Africa and Mediterranean House.
Before 1492, Jews, Christians and Muslims lived side by side in Spain until King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella drove out the Jews and Muslims. They even used the Inquisition to root out anyone who stayed behind but hid their non-Christian identity.
Sources: ABC.es, CODE.es, Wikipedia
The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, spoke about the Mideast Peace Talks during a press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The Emir, along with his wife, Sheikha Mozah, is on a state visit to Germany which began Wednesday.
 JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images “The Israeli side should strive for more wisdom and allow a Palestinian state to be created, which is in the interests of security and stability in the region,” Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani told reporters, through a translator.
The recently established peace talks, that began earlier this month, might fall apart again because Israel is refusing to extend a ban on settlements in the West Bank. That ban originally ended Sunday.
Chancellor Merkel said it is “in everybody’s interest” for the talks to continue.
“This requires of course a readiness to compromise. We believe that the Arab side, and of course the Arab peace initiative, has played a role in (the talks) taking place. But they should be continued,” Merkel told reporters.
Emir Sheikh Hamad is in Germany to strengthen ties with the country. During the press conference, Merkel praised the “dynamic” relationship between Germany and Qatar.
“Qatar as an investment location is very attractive to us, but I will add that Qatar is very welcome (in Germany), with regard to the development of German firms,” she said, adding that the Emirate’s share in German car maker Volkswagen was a prime example.
This past Thursday, Jordan’s King Abdullah II appeared on the late night U.S. comedy news program, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. There, he discussed the Mideast peace talks, which the King said could bring about war in the region if the talks do not come to a quick conclusion.
 Petra News Agency “If we fail on the 30th [of September], expect another war by the end of the year. And more wars in the region over the coming years,” Abdullah said.
What the King meant was the dispute over the settlements in Israel in the disputed West Bank territory, which is due to expire.
“If the issue of settlements are still at the table on 30th, then everybody walks away. If they do, how are we going to get people back in the near future. I don’t see that happening,” King Abdullah told Jon Stewart. “We are at a defining crossroads of whether we are going to go down in the abyss or not.”
Abdullah also insisted that all Arab countries, including Syria and Lebanon, are committed to peace in accordance to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.
Source: CNN, Jordan Times
King Abdullah II of Jordan was present Wednesday for the first direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in two years. The King warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that failure to produce peace would be a victory for the terrorists.
 REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst All eyes are upon us, Abdullah said. He praised President Barack Obama for serving as an “honest broker and partner.” Obama is overseeing the meeting between Netanyahu and Abbas.
“Solving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict based on the two-state solution is the key to regional peace which leads to normal relations between Israel and 57 Arab and Muslim nations that have endorsed the Arab Peace Initiative,” the King said prior to the meeting.
He also underlined the need “to spare no effort in addressing all final-status issues with a view to reaching the two-state solution.”
The King added that the two-state solution is ” the only solution that guarantees the interests of all and the only solution that can create a future worthy of our great region, a future of peace, in which fathers and mothers can raise their children without fear and young people can look forward to lives of achievement and hope and 300 million people can cooperate for mutual benefit.”
The price of failure , King Abdullah warned, will be too high for all.
He also said, ”Peace is also a right for every citizen in our region and for too long too many people of the region have been denied, their most basic of human rights to live in peace, security and dignity.”
The King added, “Our peoples want peace, and we can do so if we approach these negotiations with good will, sincerity and courage.”
King Abdullah and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak are the two leaders who will help with the negotiations. Both of their countries are the only Arab nations will peace agreements with Israel.
Sources: AP, Ammon News
 REUTERS/David Moir The King of Jordan will be at the first Mideast peace talks in 20 months on September 1st. He accepted an invitation from U.S. President Barack Obama to attend.
“President Obama has invited President [Hosni] Mubarak of Egypt and King Abdullah of Jordan to attend in view of their critical role in this effort,” said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a recent news conference.
Both Egypt and Jordan have peace agreements with Israel.
Also expected at the talks are Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The talks between Israelis and Palestinians will aim to set up a peace deal within one year.
Sources: Reuters, Maan News Agency
Since late Wednesday, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud has been making brief stops in four Mideast nations in order to calm the rising tensions in Lebanon and promote Arab unity. The King’s tour began in Egypt and ended in Jordan.
 AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi While in a Sinai resort town, King Abdullah met with President Hosni Mubarak to discuss the Mideast peace process and Lebanon. Their meeting lasted only one hour.
After that, Abdullah went to Syria where he was greeted at a Damascus airport by President Bashar al-Assad. Both Syria and Saudi Arabia are easing tensions that started in 2005, when Saudi ally, Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiki Hariri, was assassinated. It is believed that a Syrian killed Hariri, which Syria firmly denies.
During their meeting, the King urged al-Assad to use his influence over Hezbollah, a Lebanese resistance movement, to avoid any conflicts.
Once the meeting was over, both leaders went to Beirut together. Although things have been tense with Syria and Lebanon, diplomatic ties have been warming up lately, with current Prime Minister Saad Hariri visiting Damascus five times since 2008.
In Beirut, King Abdullah, President al-Assad met with Lebanese President Michel Suleiman. A statement from the presidency said the leaders had discussed “ways to reinforce national accord and Lebanon’s stability” and stressed the need to avoid violence.
 AP Photo/Ahmad Omar Also at the meeting was Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah, who said the issue over a tribunal indicting a rogue Hezbollah member over Hariri’s father’s murder, was raised during the closed-door talks.
“The (meeting) discussed the tribunal decision … and how it will reflect on the situation in Lebanon,” he told Reuters. “We consider this a very sensitive and dangerous subject, (that is) putting the tribunal under Israel’s service against the resistance.”
Lebanese political analyst Suleiman Taqi al-Deen said the Saudi-Syrian visit was “important, exceptional and pre-emptive.”
“It is the first time it happens before a situation in Lebanon explodes. It is an understanding to defuse the Lebanese problem because if it explodes its consequences will be very dangerous on the region,” he told Reuters.
 REUTERS/Ali Jarekji ( After the historic meeting in Beirut, King Abdullah went next to Jordan where he met its King, also named Abdullah. There, the Saudi King told his counterpart about his talks in Lebanon, and even the Palestinian issue.
“The two leaders stressed their backing for Lebanon’s efforts to enhance its stability, security, unity and national accord,” a Jordanian palace statement said.
“Saudi Arabia and Jordan support the Palestinian people in seeking to restore their rights,” the statement went on to say. “A two-state solution is the only way to achieve security and stability in the region.”
After the Friday meeting, the Jordanian King hosted an official dinner for the Saudi King. The latter then returned to Riyadh.
The Saudi King’s Mideast tour came at a time when the results of a UN tribunal’s investigation into Hariri’s murder — expected to be announced by the end of 2010 — have sparked tensions in Lebanon.
The tense atmosphere is further hurt by threats of a war against Lebanon by Israel, who has been accusing Hezbollah of receiving weapons from Syria — a claim also echoed by the United States. Both Lebanese and Syrian officials strongly dismiss the accusations.
Sources: Xinhua, PressTV, EarthTimes, AFP, Reuters
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a surprise visit to Amman Tuesday, when he met with Jordan’s King Abdullah II to discuss the Mideast Peace Process. Netanyahu was trying to get the King to persuade the Palestinians to resume peace talks.
 AFP/HO/Yussef Allan This visit came just three months after the King lamented to the Wall Street Journal over the Israeli leader’s actions which he felt brought relations between Israel and Jordan to new lows.
The meeting went on for more than two hours, and it focused on making “progress to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, based on a two-state solution, in a regional context,” said a statement from the Jordan News Agency, known as Petra.
Netanyahu’s office said that the meeting highlighted on “the need to ensure direct, serious and effective negotiations” toward “two states for two peoples.” The office also said that the talks addressed the need “to advance peace, security and prosperity in the region,” as well as the wish for “direct, serious and effective negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.”
The palace statement said King Abdullah asked Netanyahu to “make use of the opportunity available now to achieve peace, which constitutes a strategic interest for all sides involved.”
Once the meeting was done, the Israeli PM returned to his country and praised the Jordanian King. “We talked about promoting peace between Israel and the Palestinians and in the whole region,” Netanyahu said. “I welcome Jordan’s efforts for progress toward these goals.”
Jordan and Egypt are the only two Arab nations with peace treaties with Israel.
On Monday, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas met with King Abdullah. Afterward, Abbas told reporters that the Palestinians are not avoiding the peace talks.
“We have negotiated with Israeli governments before, more than once. Why would we avoid such talks? We are not.”
Sources: AP, CNN, AFP
The King of Saudi Arabia met with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House Tuesday, one year after he awarded the President with a medal before Obama made his speech on U.S. – Muslim relations in Egypt.
 Photo by Roger L. Wollenberg-Pool/Getty Images King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud talked mainly about the Mideast peace process with Obama, something many want the President to take action on.
“The King wants to have from Obama the assurance that he is going to solve the (Middle East peace) issue,” said Khaled Al-Maeena, editor of the Saudi daily Arab News and a member of the king’s delegation, according to Reuters.
Saudi Arabians feel Obama has not done much with the peace process. They would like to see him put pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop Israeli settlements on Palestinian territories, something many feel has stalled the problem.
Also discussed during the meeting was Iran and its nuclear program. King Abdullah told Obama about his concern that Iran is his Kingdom’s key foreign policy threat and wondered what will happen when the U.S. withdraws its troops from Iraq.
Sources: Reuters, AFP
The Queen of Jordan spoke out against Israel’s campaign in Gaza on Sunday, following the attack on the Turkish flotilla last week. In an article in the British newspaper, The Independent, Queen Rania said the blockade has turned Gaza into a “barely functioning, open-air prison.”
 AP Photo/Nader Daoud/FILE “The attack stunned the world because of its blatant and absurd disregard for anything resembling international law, human rights and diplomatic norms. Its glaring outrageousness stunned, but didn’t surprise me,” she went on to write.
“On the flotilla were 10,000 tons of, not guns, but vital humanitarian aid. The people of Gaza desperately need it to survive the 1,000 days of illegal blockade which has crippled Gaza…This is aid like cement to rebuild homes, which have lain in rubble and ruin since the monstrous attacks on Gaza last year; school supplies and medical equipment, like water purification tablets and wheelchairs.”
The Queen also voiced her frustration with the policies that “debar Palestinian value and, by extension, human value”.
“What is most frustrating is Israel’s defence of its actions. By attacking criticism as part of an anti-Israel, anti-Semitic propaganda war, Israel, yet again, fails to understand that the problem is policy, not PR.”
“Assigning themselves authority and immunity, Israel’s leaders feel licensed to do whatever they like and not expect an international outcry,” she said. “I fear that if the tides don’t turn in our region, moderation will be amongst the most painful casualties of continued aggression and hardline policies.”
Although Jordan signed a peace treaty agreement with Israel in 1994, it joined many other countries in criticizing the country in the flotilla attack. Israel said the attack was provoked by those onboard.
In addition, while some applauded Queen Rania’s op-ed, there were some who felt the Queen – who is of Palestinian origin – overstepped her boundaries and did what either her husband King Abdullah II or Jordan’s Foreign Minister should have done.
“The piece is fairly strong-worded coming out of Jordan and addressing a predominantly western audience,” wrote Jordanian blogger Naseem Tarawnah. “It’s rare to see that kind of commentary emanating from the state and one might wonder why King Abdullah didn’t write it himself, or, in other words, why Queen Rania was given this role to play even though foreign policy isn’t exactly her domain.”
“There is a spark of confusion to consider, as I am personally unable to tell whether Queen Rania is speaking for herself or for the Jordanian state,” Tarawnah continued. “Such confusion is absent when it is the actual leader of the country who is making a statement that concerns foreign affairs; the line becomes gray when it is the Queen.”
Sources: AFP, Independent, The Media Line
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