King Abdullah II of Jordan on Sunday urged Israel to pull out from all Arab countries it occupied in 1967 war as a prerequisite for establishing a "just and durable" peace in the region.
"We hereby emphasise to the Israelis that ending the occupation of the Palestinian and other Arab lands, pulling out from these territories and the application of the international legitimacy resolutions are the only way for achieving just, durable and comprehensive peace and guaranteeing a safe future for the region's peoples," he said.
The monarch's remarks came in his speech from the throne as he opened a new parliament following last month's parliamentary elections.
Abdullah also urged the Palestinians to unite and resolve their differences through dialogue, saying "you should seize the available peace opportunity for setting up your independent state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip".
He referred to last week's Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, and witnessed the launching of final status talks between Israel and the Palestinian authority. The Palestinian hard-line Hamas group, which took over the Gaza Strip by force in mid-June, sought to torpedo the Annapolis meeting, saying it was designed to extract further territorial concessions from the Palestinians.
Abdullah vowed to go ahead with performing Jordan's "historical role in confronting the campaign that seeks to distort the image of Islam," and to reject all forms of extremism, violence and takfir thought "dubbing people as atheists".
"We are also determined to confront all those who try to kidnap religion and monopolise it for political or factional purposes," he said. Jordanian Islamists were dealt a severe blow at the November 20 parliamentary elections, when only six candidates of the 22 fielded by the Islamic Action Front (IAF) won seats at the new 110-member lower house of parliament.
The IAF, the political arm of the influential Muslim Brotherhood movement, clinched 17 seats in the previous general elections of 2003. In his speech, Abdullah pledged to go ahead with the drive of "modernisation" including political and economic reforms and boosting the independence of the judiciary and the freedom of press.
-dpa
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