Jordan's King Abdullah II on Thursday held talks with visiting Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi regarding attempts to achieve Mideast peace based on the two-state solution. According to Petra news agency, the monarch stressed the need to exert more efforts to launch serious and direct negotiations to achieve Mideast peace, adding the Middle East is going through a critical phase by which any delay to resume peace talks constitutes a threat for strategic interests of all concerned parties.

Meanwhile, an extraordinary meeting of Arab foreign ministers was held Thursday in Cairo. The ministers said in a statement after the meeting that they will ask the UN's International Court of Justice  (ICJ) to rule on Israeli "violations" in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.

© 2009 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)