AMMAN, 15 September 2003 — Jordan’s King Abdallah, a key Middle East US ally, flew to the United States yesterday to try to salvage a US-backed peace plan after Israel threatened to expel Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
Sources at the royal court said the king, on his first visit to Washington since the US-led war on Iraq, plans to meet President George W. Bush at Camp David on Sept. 18 and 19.
“His Majesty intends to rally support for the road map, which we in Jordan view as the best way to achieve peace in the region,” the source told Reuters.
Israel’s security Cabinet decided to “remove” Arafat after two suicide bombings killed 15 Israelis on Tuesday, the latest surge of violence in a three-year-old Palestinian uprising for statehood.
The Israeli threat sparked an international outcry, with Washington, Israel’s main ally, joining in a chorus of calls not to expel Arafat, a veteran symbol of Palestinian aspirations for independence.
Arafat said on Saturday he was still committed to the US-backed road map to Palestinian statehood by 2005, a plan that seems dead in the water following the recent bloodshed and the threat to expel the Palestinian president.
Deputy Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in remarks that could increase tensions, yesterday said killing Arafat was “an option.”
Jordan has called Israel’s decision a “grave mistake” and urged the Jewish state to reconsider it.
