"The U.S. Senate and House of Representative have a crucial role to positively influence Mideast peacemaking through supporting efforts to restart the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks and bringing both sides back to the negotiating table," said Jordan's King Abdullah Sunday to a visiting U.S. Congressional delegation in Jordan. King Abdullah added that the Arab peace initiative should be brought back to the table as the outline for a comprehensive plan for mideast peace. The Arab peace initiative calls for Israel to relinquish its claims to the Palestinian occupied territories, which it conquered in 1967 and has occupied since then.
Israel and the U.S. have opposed the peace initiative, which calls for justice and a right of return for the Palestinian refugees displaced by the creation of Israel in 1948, and by the 1967 war.
The Congress members attending the delegation to Jordan included Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy from Vermont, Republican Senators Thad Cochran from Mississippi and Chuck Hagel from Nebraska, Democratic Senators Ken Salazar from Colorado and Benjamin Cardin from Maryland and Congressman Peter Welch from Vermont.
