US ‘committed’ to restarting Mideast talks: Jordan king

By Laith al-Jundi

AMMAN (AA) - Jordanian King Abdullah II on Wednesday said there was “a commitment” by the U.S. administration to restart the stalled Middle East peace process in the months ahead.

King Abdullah made the assertion at a meeting with Jordanian Parliament Speaker Atef al-Tarawneh and the heads of various parliamentary blocs, according to a statement released by Jordan’s Royal Court.

Earlier peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel broke down in 2014 over the latter’s refusal to release a number of detained Palestinians despite earlier pledges to do so.

All subsequent attempts to revive negotiations have failed, due mainly to Israel's insistence on building Jewish-only settlement blocs on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.

In regard to the crisis in neighboring Syria, the Jordanian monarch stressed the importance of maintaining a cease-fire in southwestern Syria, which, he said, had come as a result of “Jordanian efforts to bring the relevant powers to the negotiating table”.

At a July meeting in Amman, the U.S., Russia and Jordan threw their support behind a cease-fire -- which still remains in effect -- in Syria’s southwestern Daraa province.