Jordan Times
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Iran should stop seeking
to destabilise region — King
Monarch tells Rice over phone Kingdom deeply concerned about
developments in Lebanon
AMMAN (JT) — King Abdullah said in an interview published Wednesday that Iran
“should stop seeking to destabilise” regional countries.
“…We would like to see a balanced and positive relationship between Iraq and
Iran, and between Arab states and Iran. We also see that Iran should stop
seeking to destabilise Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq or any other country of the
region so that we can build constructive relations,” the King told Asharq Al
Awsat Editor-in-Chief Tariq Homayed (see
the official translation of the interview).
“I want to say that Iran is one of Iraq's powerful neighbours with strong
influence, which we hope would be positive because the continuation of fitna in
this country would scorch the earth throughout the region.”
The King described the situation in Iraq as “complicated and extremely
dangerous”.
“It is painful to see the continuation of violence that has nothing to do with
religion or humanity, as does incitement,” he told the London-based Arabic
daily.
“We hope that the efforts of all Iraq's neighbours, including Iran, would be
focused on helping Iraq out of its crisis and preventing it from slipping into
an all-encompassing civil war, the repercussions of which will reverberate
throughout the region. This will increase frustration and conflict.”
The Monarch said Sunnis and Shiites must put aside their differences and prevent
external interference in their affairs.
“They should also reject intervention from those states that see this region as
a field to implement their designs at the expense of peoples' security and
stability. As everyone knows, Shiites and Sunnis have lived in harmony for years
in several countries and we hope this co-existence will continue. Jordan hopes
to avert religious and sectarian differences which could serve the political
agenda of any other country. This would bring destruction to our region and
threaten global security,” he warned.
On the execution of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, the King said: “The
issue could have been dealt with in a way that did not feed sectarianism and
violence. We had hoped that this would have been addressed differently.”
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned King Abdullah
yesterday and briefed him on her Mideast tour as well as US efforts to help
revive the peace process, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.
The King told Rice that more international efforts were needed to push for
resuming Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations.
Rice’s trip to the regions included the Palestinian territories, Israel, Egypt,
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, in addition to Jordan.
During the phone call, the King said Jordan was deeply concerned about
developments in Lebanon, where, he said, dialogue should be the only way to
defuse political impasse.