Jordan Times
Monday, August 31, 1998
Regent: Peace dividends intangible as a result of political stalemate
By Alia A. Toukan
AMMAN — His Royal Highness Crown Prince Hassan, the Regent, Sunday said
the much-promised economic peace dividends have failed to materialise over the past two
years in the absence of political movement on the Palestinian-Israeli track.
“There is no tangible result to show for all our patience. Yet, we keep indulging
ourselves in the hope that a successful end will soon unfold,” Prince Hassan told an
audience of prominent politicians and academics attending the New Atlantic Initiative
(NAI) conference in Amman.
“Whatever economic promises we have made to our people as a result of peace, have
been practically belied by the events of the last weeks. In Jordan our economic growth
rate has declined to almost zero in 1996,” said the Crown Prince.
Prince Hassan noted that trade between Jordan and Israel is barely twenty million dollars
per annum, while trade between the Kingdom and the Palestinian territories “is even
worse than that of 1984, when the West Bank and Gaza were totally under Israeli
control.”
Responding to criticisms levelled against Jordan for “pushing” for ties with the
Jewish state, the Crown Prince said: “Our insistence in pursuing these [peace] talks
is basically motivated by our strategic interest.”
“We have...been accused by some critics in our constituency of interfering and
meddling in the internal affairs of the Palestinians,” he said.
“Our response is clear. We do not mediate. We do not represent the Palestinians. They
are there as an entity, as an identity, as a people, and it is for the Palestinian
National Authority (PNA) to engage in direct negotiations with the government of
Israel,” continued the Crown Prince, adding that the Kingdom will resume its role as
“facilitator.”
Prince Hassan added that he believed that officials in the PNA were implementing their
security responsibilities in accordance with the Oslo accords.
Speaking on the issue of the U.S. policies on the Middle East, Prince Hassan called for a
general policy review of the region.
“I'd like to suggest effectively that the time has come for a policy review of this
Middle East region inclusive of Iraq, Libya, Sudan....I would like to suggest that the
time has come for a broad-based strategy,” he said.
The Crown Prince also dismissed speculation of Jordanian-Turkish-Israeli cooperation,
saying “there is no grand design.”
“How do we say to the Syrians we have no grand designs with Turkey?” Prince
Hassan asked members of the conference, adding that “the isolation of Turkey, and
pushing Turkey into a corner is not in the region's interest.”
The NAI conference is to move to Tel Aviv on Monday and Tuesday, when Israeli Prime
Minister Benyamin Netanyahu is due to speak.
The NAI, which was established in June 1996 in Washington D.C. as a public policy research
centre, began as an effort to debate the new agenda for transatlantic relations.
The state aims are to move toward free trade between an enlarged European Union and the
North American free trade area to strengthen global free trade, and to reinvigorate
Atlantic institutions of political cooperation and consultation.