Jordan Times
Sunday, June 13, 2004
King urges 'Marshall Plan' for Mideast
CHICAGO (Agencies) His Majesty King Abdullah has called for a regional programme modeled after the Marshall Plan, which is credited with saving postwar Europe from economic and political disarray.Addressing the Chicago Economic Club and the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, King Abdullah said he had approached US leaders about such a project before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The King added that the attacks and subsequent problems they triggered overseas make it all the more pertinent.
The plan is needed now more than ever, to give people hope and offer them an alternative to hate and division, the Monarch told 500 people at a hotel in downtown Chicago.
I'm talking about a Marshall Plan, as it were, for the recovery of the Middle East.
The four-year Marshall Plan cost $13 billion and helped rebuild Germany as well as 14 other war-damaged European nations after World War II.
King Abdullah said bringing stability to Iraq is crucial to any Middle East revival, but that it is secondary to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Terrorists, he argued, were using the Palestinian issue to woo recruits.
If we solve the Israeli-Palestinian problem, 90 per cent of the battle is over, he said.
King Abdullah was in the United States to attend the G-8 economic summit in Georgia. Earlier Friday, he attended President Ronald Reagan's funeral in Washington, DC.
Asked on US-Saudi relations, the King said ties between the leaders of both countries are good, warm and genuine, adding that there is no alternative for standing by Saudi Arabia in its fight against terrorism.