Jordan Times
Friday, November 12, 2004
King to attend funeral
By Khalid Dalal
AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah will attend the funeral of Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat in Cairo today.
A Royal Court source told The Jordan Times that the King will head an official
delegation and attend the funeral alongside many Arab and foreign leaders.
The announcement was made a few hours after Jordan declared on Thursday 40 days
of mourning at the Royal Court and three days nationwide.
In a statement to the Jordan News Agency, Petra, the court offered its sympathy
and condolences to the Palestinian people and expressed deepest sadness and
sorrow by King Abdullah and the Jordanian people over the passing of Arafat.
The statement described Arafat as "a man who dedicated his life in defending the
rights of the Palestinian people to establish their own independent state."
Also yesterday, the King performed Salat Al Ghaib with around 1,000 orphaned
children — praying for the soul of Arafat. The prayers were held after an iftar
hosted by the King and Her Majesty Queen Rania for the children and was attended
by HRH Prince Ali, HRH Princess Rym and several state and government officials.
Meanwhile, King Abdullah sent a cable of condolences to Palestinian Legislative
Council Speaker Rawhi Fattouh, who was named yesterday as the interim president.
Also Thursday, the government expressed its sorrow over the passing of the
Palestinian president and reaffirmed its solidarity with the Palestinian
leadership and people.
Prime Minister Faisal Fayez issued a communiqu? declaring three days of mourning
across the country with ministries, public departments and schools closed on
Thursday.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Prime Ministry Affairs and
Government Performance Marwan Muasher said Palestinians "lost a symbol of their
struggle to establish their own state on their national soil."
Muasher pledged Jordan's full support to the Palestinians to ensure "a smooth
transition of power" and help revive "the Middle East peace process."
Muasher's remarks were made after seeing off at Marka Airport chief of the
Palestine Liberation Organisation's Executive Committee Mahmoud Abbas and
Fattouh, who were on their way to Cairo to attend Arafat's funeral.
Minister of Culture and Government Spokesperson Asma Khader said yesterday
Jordan will spare no effort to help the Palestinian people overcome their
"difficult situation" and work closely with them to "cement their unity" and
achieve their dream "of establishing an independent viable state."
Former Prime Minister Abdul Salam Majali, who headed the Jordanian delegation to
the peace talks with Israel in the early 1990s, described the death of Arafat as
"a great shock not only for Palestinians, but for the whole Arab world."
He hoped that in dealing with their grief the Palestinian people will also "look
to the future as they learn lessons from the past."
The former peace-maker, who signed the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty in 1994
with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, said: "Israel has no excuse now to
keep saying we do not have a partner to establish peace with. However, I hope
Israel will not create a new enemy to hinder future peace efforts."
Former Foreign Minister Kamel Abu Jaber agreed, saying "the Israeli pretext of
Arafat standing as an obstacle to establishing peace does not exist any more."
But, Abu Jaber, who headed the joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation to the
Madrid peace conference in 1991, voiced his fear that Palestinians would face
tremendous difficulties on their way to achieve peace with Israel as long as
"its current leadership continues to hold too tightly to its
ideological-oriented policies."
Both Majali and Abu Jaber brushed off fears of a political vacuum or internal
conflicts on the Palestinian front after Arafat's death, saying key Palestinian
figures such as Abbas, Ahmed Qureia and Nabil Shaath are aware of what is going
on and know how to protect the unity of their people and prevent any
fragmentation.