Rice arrives in Jordan for talks with king

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Jordan today for talks with King Abdullah and other Arab countries’ envoys.

The talks come a day after she hosted an inconclusive Israeli-Palestinian summit.

Yesterday’s gathering came after a six-year lull in such US-brokered sit-downs, and ended with no new agreements.

The Israeli and Palestinian leaders, however, did agree to meet again, and Ms Rice said she expected to return to the region soon to revive an internationally backed peace plan known as the “road map”.

“I hope the Arab states also understand they have a role to play in this,” Ms Rice said in Jerusalem.

“This isn’t just what the United States can talk about with the Israelis and the Palestinians. How about some of the ideas that were there in the Arab initiative? Why can’t we get some of that going, too?”

Ms Rice was referring to a dormant 2002 Arab peace proposal that would have offered wide Arab diplomatic recognition of Israel in exchange for Israel’s retreat to its pre-1967 borders.