Aqaba Summit

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AQABA SUMMIT

The Aqaba Summit of 4 June 2003, hosted by King Abdullah II of Jordan, was attended by Palestinian prime minister Mahmud Abbas, Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, and U.S. president George W. Bush. The summit was intended to begin implementation of the "Road Map" for peace, promoted by the Bush administration alongside the United Nations, Russia, and the European Union (the "Quartet"). The Road Map called for an end to the violence that had erupted in September 2000 (the al-Aqsa Intifada) and for negotiations toward the creation of an independent Palestinian state by 2005. At the summit's end, both Abbas and Sharon pledged to implement the plan, with Sharon promising to begin removal of settlement outposts on the West Bank and Abbas calling for an end to violence. HAMAS immediately rejected Abbas's request, and forty thousand Israeli settlers demonstrated against Sharon. Less than a week later, the suicide bombing of a bus in Jerusalem was followed by Israeli air strikes against HAMAS targets.

SEE ALSO Abbas, Mahmud Rida;Aqsa Intifada, al-;Bush, George W.;HAMAS;Sharon, Ariel.