and Jordan's King Abdallah walk in the Elysee Palace
prior to a meeting where they can agree to quickly surrender
in Frog tradition.
Posted on 07/28/2002 10:27:36 AM PDT by RCW2001
Jordan's king says it's `somewhat ludicrous' to intervene in Iraq while Israeli-Palestinian conflict rages
WILLIAM C. MANN, Associated Press Writer
Sunday, July 28, 2002
©2002 Associated Press
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/07/28/national1314EDT0562.DTL
(07-28) 10:14 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --
Jordan's King Abdullah II finds "somewhat ludicrous" the idea of intervention in Iraq while the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has the Middle East in turmoil.
Also, despite speculation in Washington and elsewhere, the United States is not sending troops into Jordan to prepare for an invasion of Iraq to oust President Saddam Hussein, Abdullah said Sunday.
"That has not happened, and I don't think will ever happen," Abdullah said on CNN's "Late Edition."
The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Joseph Biden, who plans hearings this week about Iraq, said he does not expect imminent military action.
Abdullah, who meets President Bush in Washington on Thursday, said he will not talk with Bush about any plans to attack Iraq. Rather, the king will try to advance the idea of an international conference to find a solution to Israel's bitter, decades-long confrontation with the Palestinians. He also will explain to Bush the humanitarian crisis facing the Palestinians.
"The problem is, trying to take on the question of Iraq with the lack of positive movement on the Israeli-Palestinian, Israeli-Arab track seems, at this point, somewhat ludicrous," the king said.
Bush and other administration officials have talked openly of waging a war against Iraq with the single purpose of achieving a "regime change" by removing President Saddam Hussein. Bush accuses Saddam of supporting terrorists and trying to amass weapons of mass destruction in violation of commitments he made after losing the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
The United States has invited six Iraqi opposition groups to Washington next month for talks about the country's future.
The New York Times reported this month that administration planners planned to launch airstrikes and commando raids from Jordan against neighboring Iraq once Bush gave the word to go. Jordan immediately denied it, even escorting journalists on a tour of a desert air base to knock down it was being upgraded to serve the Americans.
Biden, D-Del., disagreed with Abdullah's assertion that dialogue would be a better solution in Iraq than violence. "Dialogue with Saddam is useless," Biden said.
He said, however, that "absent serious provocation by Iraq," he does not expect military action at least before November.
On Wednesday, Biden opens committee hearings that he said are not aimed at causing trouble with the White House.
"This is just beginning to raise the issue, what's at stake here, what's the nature of the threat when we go in, and if we go in?" Biden said. "Will it require tens of thousands of troops to be there for three, four, five years? These are questions the American public has a right to have some knowledge about."
As he has previously, Biden said Bush should do nothing before he lays out to Congress his rationale for striking, explains his post-Saddam plans for Iraq and wins congressional support.
Meanwhile, King Abdullah also said:
* Palestinians have the right to decide their own leaders. "I think it's unfortunate when we get into the cycle of, as outsiders, trying to decide who should be the leaders of other people's countries," he said. In demanding democratic change within the Palestinian Authority, Bush decreed that Yasser Arafat was unfit to continue as the authority's leader.
* Said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict "has definitely delayed and hampered the international struggle against extremism" by making it politically impossible for Arabs to participate actively.
©2002 Associated Press
With all due respect, that kind of thinking is what separates rinky-dink countries like yours from the big boys who make things happen.
Thank you, Your Majesty, for invaluable advice concerning operations against Iraq, and the timing thereof.
It has been referred to the appropriate section.
Born in early 1962 and coming to power in 1999, King Abdullah fulfills several prophesies for being the Antichrist. Let's see if he works out a seven-year peace for Israel.
Well, there's Sherlock Holmes' smarter brother heard from...
Well said. The word 'constant' is key to the matter. Were we to revoke Jordan's unofficial status as 'protectorate of the U.S.', or Kuwait's, Qatar's, Bahrain's, or even the Saudi devils', it would be they who experience 'regime change', and not Iraq.
Abdullah's a cagey, and gentlemanly rascal, fully capable of deception. I don't know if he's being truthful about U.S. presence and intention within Jordan itself, but it is he, himself, that is appearing ludicrous.
His interview with Blitzer was all a side-stepping bob and weave.
When the shoving starts in earnest, Jordan will stand in our corner, no matter what the Little King says now.
This is a picture of Queen Noor. She is the mother of the king of Jordan and an American from Baltimore.
Actually, if we do it right, we can do both, take care of Iraq and solve the Palestinian conflict.
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