Jordan Times
Sunday, September 18, 2005
King to meet with Bush
Agencies
HIS MAJESTY KING Abdullah is expected to meet with US President George W. Bush
on Thursday, the White House announced.
“The United States appreciates Jordan's
friendship and values our strong partnership in the region,” the Associated
Press quoted White House Spokesman Scott McClellan as saying on Friday.
“The president looks forward to discussing with the King his initiative in
promoting moderate Islam, the progress of reform in Jordan and other bilateral
and regional issues.”
The role of Islam in the face of extremism as well as regional and bilateral
issues were the focus of King Abdullah's activities in New York on Friday.
During a meeting on the sidelines of the UN World Summit, King Abdullah told
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip
must not be the last from territories Palestinians want for a state.
Reuters quoted an official as saying that the King and Sharon “discussed the
Gaza withdrawal and the need to bring things under control there.” “The King
emphasised that the pullout should not be the last stage but the first and
should be followed by other withdrawals from the West Bank,” the official said.
King Abdullah and Sharon last met in February at a summit in Egypt where the
Palestinian Authority declared a truce with Israel.
Israel completed a troop pullout from the Gaza Strip on Monday, after 38 years
of occupation.
Addressing the World Summit on Friday, the Monarch said: “Peoples of the world
are looking to us to bring our nations together, to act with urgency and to
achieve results.”
He said Jordan was on track to achieve the majority of its millennium
development targets. “The challenges are real and there is much to be done. But
gains are being made in poverty reduction, health, education, gender equality,
the environment, and more. This effort is only part of Jordan's much larger
national strategy — a comprehensive, inclusive approach to reform and
development,” he said.
He urged world leaders to “ensure zero tolerance towards those who promote
extremism,” adding that Jordan has worked with the international Muslim
community to oppose extremist interpretations of Islam. “Jordan wants true,
moderate, traditional Islam to replace fundamentalist, radical and militant
Islam, everywhere in the world, for every single Muslim.” Also Friday, the King
told NBC's The Today Show that terrorism was a concern for the entire
international community.
“European capitals have suffered, the United States has suffered, and many
countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia. So this is part of an
international effort to wipe out these extremist elements,” the King told NBC's
Katie Couric. He noted that more Muslims have been killed by terrorists than any
other religious group or society put together.
Commenting on the declining support by Americans for the war in Iraq, as shown
by polls, King Abdullah said: “We're all devastated by the tragedy of Hurricane
Katrina and, you know, I think there was an outpouring of grief from all over
the world that people had suffered as they have.” On Iraq, he said there was an
urgent need to help the Iraqi government create as much security as possible so
that the Iraqis are given the chance to finalise their constitution and conduct
elections at the end of the year. The King reiterated Jordan's stand on Iraq
during a meeting on Friday evening with Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari. He told
the premier that the success in building a safe and stable Iraq is a success to
Jordan, pledging the Kingdom's full support for the Iraqi government in its
fight against terrorism.