AMMAN, 19 May 2005 — Jordan’s King Abdallah yesterday opened a two-day meeting of Nobel Prize laureates at the ancient city of Petra, some 200 kilometers south of Amman, by urging the world’s greatest minds to help youth all over the world to shape a “more positive future” for humanity. “We have to provide the youth with the tools they need to achieve success and build a more positive future, where they can live in freedom and respect,” the monarch said. “A process begins here — a process that all of you will shape and by your effort, help share our world,” he added.
At least 29 laureates from the Nobel Prize six disciplines and other leaders are attending the meeting, which Jordanian Finance Minister Bassem Awadallah said had the primary aim of “bringing the best minds together to think about where the world is going”. Participants include luminaries such as former Peace Prize winner the Dalai Lama and former US President Bill Clinton.
The king complained that a “wide gap” separated Middle East countries from the advanced world and prevented the youth from employing their talents to effect a positive change in their societies. “The friends of peace are working actively to come up with peace that ensures justice for the Palestinians and security for the Israelis in two states that live side by side in accordance with international legitimacy,” Abdallah said.
The meeting, which is sponsored by Abdallah and the Nobel Prize Winner Elie Wiesel, precedes the World Economic Forum conference which is due to kick off at the eastern shore of the Dead Sea tomorrow with the participation of 1,300 leaders of the world’s business, politics and civil society.
Meanwhile, the Jordanian authorities have charged eight men with plotting to attack Israeli and US tourists visiting the country and planning to launch military operations inside Israel through Jordanian territory in 2004 and 2005, judicial sources said yesterday. Seven defendants have been arrested while an eighth suspect resides in Syria and will be tried in absentia, the sources said.
The eight men were charged with “plotting illegal acts that could draw hostile actions from a foreign country and putting Jordan’s international ties at risk”. According to the charge sheet, the defendants had embraced Takfir thought (labeling people as apostates) and in November 2004 talked about the need to “kill foreign tourists visiting the kingdom”.
