Jordan Times
Tuesday, September 18, 2001
King to visit Egypt, travels to US later this month
By Francesca Sawalha
AMMAN — Doubling efforts to secure more American involvement in the Middle East crisis after last week's terror attacks in the US, His Majesty King Abdullah was to travel to Egypt today ahead of talks at the White House later this month, a senior official said on Monday.“His Majesty and President [George W.] Bush spoke on the telephone [on Sunday],” the senior official said, “and the president said he was very keen on listening to the King's views on regional and international developments in the wake of the attacks.”
King Abdullah and Bush, who had to postpone a summit scheduled for Sept. 20 in Washington due to the terrorist emergency in the US, “agreed to meet as soon as possible, by the end of this month,” the source continued.
The King reportedly reiterated to Bush that Jordan stands by the US, and urged him to seek peace in the Middle East and help secure a just solution to the Palestinian cause.
“His Majesty might be travelling to Sharm El Sheikh tomorrow [on Tuesday] to coordinate positions with [Egyptian] President [Hosni] Mubarak,” the source added.
The Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported that the King and Mubarak agreed in a telephone conversation yesterday to continue exerting all possible efforts to secure an end to Israeli aggressions in the occupied territories, which have claimed the lives of 635 Palestinians and 175 Israelis over the past year.
The King also briefed Palestinian President Yasser Arafat by telephone on Monday on his contacts with Bush and European leaders since the Sept. 11 attacks, Petra reported.
Jordan was swift in condemning last Tuesday's terrorist attacks and declaring its support to the US government and people.
While reminding world public opinion of Jordan's own decades-long fight against terrorism, King Abdullah also made it clear that the best guarantee against terrorism is to solve the regional crises contributing to its proliferation, such as the half-century-long Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Arab lands.
“Until you solve some of the crises and problems that we have, especially the Palestinian-Israeli crisis, the fight [against terrorism] is going to be a lot harder,” the King told the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) on Sunday, in his fourth interview with a US television channel in a week.
“We have to understand that to combat and win this phenomenon [terrorism] once and for all, we are going to have to find a final peaceful solution between the Israelis and Palestinians as quickly as possible,” the King also told NBC.