Jordan Times
Thursday, March 11, 2004
King to visit US in April
AMMAN (AFP) — His Majesty King Abdullah expressed concern Wednesday over the situation in Iraq and the lack of progress in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, and said he will discuss both issues next month with US officials.“I will visit Washington the second or third week of next month (April),” King Abdullah told Al Rai newspaper, in his first interview with a local daily since he ascended the Throne in February 1999.
“The visit will be very timely because I am not satisfied at all with the security situation in Iraq. It is very difficult and I hope it will not get worse in the next few weeks,” the King said.
He also chided the United States and Britain, saying they were “busy today with the issue of weapons of mass destruction and if there was a justification for launching the war.”
“During my visit to the United States I will be speaking very frankly with the American President (George W. Bush) on what the Americans can do to ease the hardships of the Iraqi people and what we can do to help,” he said.
The Monarch will also discuss with Bush the need to push for progress on the Israeli-Palestinian peace track, which he fears might get sidelined by the US presidential election.
“The credibility of the world is being tested. If it does not act to help us to end the conflict and set up peace and justice, anger and violence will engulf the entire world,” the King warned.
He said Israel bore the responsibility for the crisis and “must recognise the rights of the Palestinian people, implement the peace initiatives and stop all the action that shatter hopes for peace such as building the separation wall, settlements and its policies of assassinations” of Palestinians.
Nevertheless, the King welcomed a bid by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to dismantle Jewish settlements and withdraw from the Gaza Strip, but said Jordan needed to “understand the final goal” of this unilateral scheme.
“We will evaluate this when we know all the details and where the settlers will go. If they go to the West Bank, this will be another problem,” he said.
King Abdullah also dismissed Israeli reports that a meeting with Sharon was in the pipeline.
“There has been no talk about an expected meeting with the Israeli prime minister,” he said. Sharon told Israeli public television late Tuesday that he would meet King Abdullah “in the next few days.”
In a separate interview published Wednesday in the Israeli daily Maariv, the King said Israel's plans to evacuate most of the Gaza settlements is “a step in the right direction.”
But said Sharon's government needed to coordinate the scheme not only with the Palestinians and neighbouring Egypt and Jordan but also with the four co-sponsors of the Middle East roadmap peace plan — the United States, European Union, UN and Russia.