Israel, Jordan mark accord anniversary

AMMAN, Jordan -- As Israel and Jordan marked the 11th anniversary of a historic peace accord, the Jewish state hailed its Arab neighbor Tuesday as its "strategic partner" in Mideast peacemaking.

"Israel considers Jordan a strategic partner and an important element in efforts to attain peace with neighboring states," the Israeli Embassy said in a statement marking the accord that was signed on Oct. 26, 1994.

It said 2005 marked a "significant stage in deepening political dialogue and bilateral cooperation on all levels," from meetings between top officials to cooperation in fighting the bird flu.

But Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Jamil Abu-Bakr scorned the treaty, saying its anniversary was a "bad omen."

"We're against the treaty because it only bodes well with the interest of the Zionist enemy who wants to control us, but it neither serves Jordan nor the Arab world," he said. "On the contrary, it's against Arab identity, culture and independence."

"The Arab people are against making peace with an (Israeli) entity which usurps Arab land, kills Palestinian people, demolishes their homes, builds a barrier to separate Palestinian communities and refuses to relinquish the lands it had occupied by force 38 years ago," Abu-Bakr told The Associated Press.

A coalition of 13 opposition groups, meanwhile, rebuked the Jordanian government for holding two coordination meetings with Israel last week on preventing bird flu, which has devastated flocks and killed 62 people in Asia and recently spread to Europe and Turkey.

"This is part of normalization with the Zionist enemy and we condemn it," the opposition coalition said in a statement signed by leftists and Muslim hard-line groups vehemently opposed to a peaceful Arab-Israeli settlement.

Jordan, a key U.S. ally in the volatile Middle East, became the second Arab state after Egypt to sign a peace treaty with Israel.

Jordanian officials were not available for comment Tuesday. But the government repeatedly has said peace with Israel was an "irreversible strategic choice" that let the kingdom regain land seized by Israel and water rights to the Yarmouk and Jordan rivers, plus control over Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem until a Palestinian-Israeli agreement is reached over final status.

The Israeli Embassy statement said two-way trade reached $185 million last year, a 41 percent jump over 2003.

Last month, Jordan's King Abdullah II met Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Jordan also returned its ambassador to Israel this year after lowering its diplomatic representation in late 2000 to protest Israel's military response to the Palestinian uprising.