Posted on 09/14/2003 7:25:07 AM PDT by Thinkin' Gal
AMMAN (AFP) — His Majesty King Abdullah will seek firm US support for the new Palestinian government and the Middle East peace process as he begins Sunday a five-day visit to the United States.
King Abdullah will hold talks with US President George W. Bush during a visit to his Camp David retreat in Maryland, on Thursday and Friday.
The King said his talks with Bush will focus on the latest developments in the Middle East conflict, marked by the resignation of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, the appointment of Parliament Speaker Ahmed Qureia as his successor and Israel's threat to remove leader Yasser Arafat.
The situation in postwar Iraq will also be on the agenda of his meeting with Bush, scheduled for next Friday, the King told a group of deputies here Thursday.
Securing US and international “support for the Palestinian position will be the main goal of my visit to Washington,” King Abdullah said.
“What is required now is to rally international support to ensure the success (of the peace process) to help end the Israeli occupation and the suffering of the brotherly Palestinian people,” the King told the deputies.
He said he “wished success for the new Palestinian government” and would bring up the issue of US support during his talks with Bush.
Jordan moved to the forefront of the search for a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians when in June it hosted a groundbreaking summit between Bush, Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
After Abbas resigned last week in a power struggle with Arafat, Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher hosted an emergency meeting last Sunday with his Palestinian counterpart Nabil Shaath and EU foreign and security policy chief Javier Solana.
At their summit, which followed a wave of Palestinian suicide attacks and Israeli raids on Hamas leaders, they discussed ways to implement the US-backed “roadmap” that calls for the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.
“We will be very active in the next period, both ahead of His Majesty's visit to Washington and ahead of the UN General Assembly to keep searching for ideas and ways to push the peace process forward,” Muasher said.
“Our efforts continue ... the King will visit the United States for that purpose,” Muasher said.
Israel's threat to “remove” Arafat, announced on Thursday, has added to the urgency of Jordan's efforts.
On Friday, Muasher warned that getting rid of Arafat would be a “dangerous” move with serious repercussions for the entire region, while Information Minister Nabil Sharif described it as a “serious mistake.”
Muasher discussed the latest developments in a telephone call with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, urging him to use Washington's influence with Israel to prevent it from carrying out its threat.
Meanwhile, White House spokesman Scott McClellan has said Bush is looking forward to meeting King Abdullah, describing Jordan as a “close friend... and a partner in the fight against terror and the pursuit of Middle East peace.”
Sunday, September 14, 2003
"Abdullah sent secret messages to the British foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, expressing his willingness to take under his wing the Arab part of a partitioned Palestine if Britain abandoned the Mandate, as it said it would. But the king pointed out that he could not say so in public and indeed sometimes had to say the opposite, for fear of appearing ambitious and land-hungary."
~ Roland Dallas, King Hussein: A Life on the Edge, pg. 40
Only the names have changed. Ooops, then again...
Agreed. If he really wants to show his committment to their "cause", he would assimilate them into Jordan. That ain't gonna happen though, because the Palestinians are all about destroying Israel, which is exactly what the rest of the muslim world wants. The Palestinians are nothing more than their front line fodder against the Israelis. Egypt, Jordan and Syria couldn't defeat Israel on the conventional battlefield so they switched tactics and support/finance the Palestinians to do their dirty work. Abdullah is just on another "distraction" mission in hopes of keeping the conflict alive.
He's no fool. Yasser's been there, tried to kill the kings dad.
Ironically, the second stage in the PLOs phased plan of 1974, after achieving a geographic base, which it appears they're getting by 2005, is "unification" with Jordan, peaceful or otherwise. If we believe what Yasser says, and there's no reason not to, the peaceful "side by side" state will cause regional chaos to both the east and the west.
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