Jordan-PLO-Egypt negotiations with Israel could be key to peace

The remaining 78% of former Palestine - Transjordan - today called Jordan - had already achieved its independence in 1946. This area was exclusively populated by Arabs – having been excluded from Jewish settlement in 1922 by article 25 of the Mandate for Palestine.

The Jews accepted Resolution 181 - but it was rejected by the Arabs - resulting in the invasion of Western Palestine by the armies of six Arab States - Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

Transjordan conquered East Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and unified those areas with Transjordan to form a new territorial entity - renamed Jordan in 1950 – until these areas were lost to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.

Egypt conquered Gaza and administered it between 1948 and 1967.

Summit participant - Egypt's Sameh Shoukry - held talks in Cairo three weeks ago with Ziad Abu Amr - the Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister and PLO Executive Committee Member - and Palestinian Minister of Social Development Ahmad Majdalani.

Shoukry then reportedly expressed the importance of continuing contact with various regional and international parties concerned in order to create the appropriate atmosphere for reviving the negotiations between the Palestinian and Israeli sides at the earliest opportunity.

The Summit could well be creating that appropriate atmosphere which eventually sees Jordan-PLO-Egypt negotiations with Israel to finally complete the solution first contemplated in 1922 – the division of former Palestine between Arabs and Jews.