SHUNEH, Jordan, 17 May 2004 — US Secretary of State Colin Powell put on a brave face at the World Economic Forum here yesterday but failed to win much Arab support for Washington’s Middle East policies despite issuing rare criticism of Israel.
As Powell returned home, the forum’s host King Abdallah of Jordan told US television that he was concerned. “To feel the anger and the rage that I see in the Middle East toward the United States really sort of frustrates and worries me tremendously,” the US-educated king told ABC television.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher warned in an interview with CNN that the US standing in the Middle East had “never been lower” and his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Maher told panelists here that Washington was “biased” toward Israel.
But Maher also welcomed Powell’s criticism of Israeli demolitions of Palestinians homes and said his visit to Jordan had been positive because “he wanted to listen to the Arab views”.
Maher was among a group of Arab ministers invited to a breakfast meeting with Powell by King Abdallah during which the regional officials insisted on US support for Palestinian statehood and the restoration of sovereignty in Iraq.
Powell arrived in Jordan on Saturday on a last-minute decision to attend the WEF to mollify Arab leaders infuriated by US President George W. Bush’s endorsement last month of a unilateral Israeli plan to pull out from Gaza and part of the West Bank.
In a keynote address and meetings including groundbreaking talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei, Powell insisted that Washington was committed to a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel.
Powell urged Arabs to take strides on the road to political and economic reforms which Washington is pushing for, and called for a “forum” between the Group of Eight industrialized nations and Arab governments.
But Arab and European officials stressed that reform should be homemade and linked its success to credible resolutions of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Iraq conflict.
