Jordan's monarch has called on the US to produce an action plan for achieving an Arab-Israeli settlement and to initiate a dialogue with Baghdad instead of drawing up plans for waging war on Iraq.
In a series of interviews ahead of tomorrow's meetings in Washington, King Abdullah said that President Bush should honour his commitment of June 24th to work towards the establishment of a Palestinian state within three years by laying down a detailed work plan with deadlines and timetables.
If this was not done, the king said, "we're not going to be much further down the line". The king said he intended to press Mr Bush to work with Russia, Europe and the UN to initiate confidence-building measures which would lead to the ministerial meeting proposed last spring by the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell.
In his view, Palestinians and Israelis could not "break the cycle of violence" and move forward without international intervention.
The king will also urge Mr Bush to provide emergency aid to relieve Palestinian suffering since 70 per cent of those living in the West Bank and Gaza now live below the poverty level. He also said Arabs must spell out the benefits which Israel could expect if peace was achieved and took issue with Mr Bush's call for a change of Palestinian leadership.
Palestinians must decide if the Palestinian president, Mr Yasser Arafat, "has a future with his people". King Abdullah warned that the US anti-terror campaign had been stalled by the Palestinian- Israeli conflict. This dispute must move towards resolution if "we're going to have a decent chance of eradicating extremism and terror around the world", he added.
"Trying to take on the question of Iraq" while there was no "positive movement on the Israeli-Palestinian track seemed at this point somewhat ludicrous." The king warned that any action against Iraq would open a "Pandora's box" in the region.
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