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Jordan’s king hosts Egyptian president for talks on Mideast peace and Iraq | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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AQABA, Jordan (AP) – Jordan’s King Abdullah II hosted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at this Red Sea resort Saturday to discuss Mideast peacemaking and Iraq.

Mubarak’s visit of several hours comes in the wake of triple bombings that killed at least 21 people at the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula resort of Dahab followed by a failed attack by two suicide bombers against international peacekeepers and police also in the peninsula.

Jordan’s official Petra news agency said the talks will focus on Mideast peacemaking and other regional issues.

It did not elaborate, but the leaders were expected to discuss developments in Iraq and terrorism battering Egypt, Jordan and other countries.

Mubarak flew in to the Red Sea resort city of Aqaba, where he was escorted from the airport to talks with the Jordanian monarch in his seaside vacation palace, known as Beit al-Bahr, or House of the Sea.

Monday’s attacks in Dahab were the third in the Sinai Peninsula in less than two years. Terrorists targeted tourists in Taba in 2004 and Sharm el-Sheik last summer.

They launched three other small attacks last year, two in Cairo against tourists and one in Sinai targeting international peacekeepers.

Jordan was the target of al-Qaeda suicide bombers who detonated themselves at three Amman hotels last November killing 60 civilians.

Last August, two rockets were fired from Jordanian territory at two U.S. warships docked in Aqaba harbor south of Amman. The rockets missed their target, but the attempt was the most serious attack on the U.S. Navy since the bombing of the destroyer USS Cole in Yemen in 2000.

The al-Qaeda in Iraq group, led by Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility.