AMMAN, 11 March 2004 — The United States and Britain should stop focusing on justifications for the war in Iraq and start caring about its security and people, Jordan’s King Abdallah said in comments published yesterday.
“I do not feel comfortable at all about the situation in Iraq and the worsening security there,” he said, adding that he will discuss the issue when he visits the US next month.
“I hope that it (security) does not get worse in the coming few weeks,” Abdallah said in an interview with the leading Al-Ra’i daily.
He said he will be frank in his talks with US President George Bush about what can be done to relieve Iraqi suffering, both by the United States and Jordan.
“The security situation is very difficult and the Americans and the British are busy today with the issue of weapons of mass destruction and whether there was justification to launch the war,” he said. “What we care for now is the Iraqi people, first and last.”
Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are both embroiled in questions over the US-led invasion of Iraq in March. Both leaders had cited Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s possession of weapons of mass destruction as a justification for invasion, but nearly a year later no such weapons have been found.
Abdallah said that the Iraqi people needed international help and support to rebuild institutions, establish national authority and form an elected government.
In an interview that touched on several topics, Abdallah said that an election year in the United States had moved the stalled Mideast peace process out of the spotlight, but spiraling Israeli-Palestinian violence demanded action.
“Without any doubt we are facing a difficult year, as the violence is increasing day after day. The Israeli measures against the Palestinians continue, and the threat from both sides does not end,” the newspaper quoted the king as saying. He said that the world already knows that security and stability cannot be achieved without finding a solution to the Palestinian issue.
Referring to a US-proposed reform plan for the Middle East, Abdallah said that reforms are imminent but should come from within.
The Bush administration advocates a “Greater Middle East Initiative” modeled on the 1975 Helsinki pact that the West used to press for greater freedom and human rights in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe.
Major Arab powers have rejected it as an attempt to impose Western ideas on the area and interference in their internal affairs.
, prompting administration officials to say they were only offering advice.
