Yaari: Is there a possibility of an upgrade, any improvement, any expansion on the original text of the Arab peace initiative? This has been contemplated I believe in some Arab summits before.
HM King Abdullah: But you have to understand it. When the Arab peace proposal initially came out it was done in such way to reach out to concerns that the Israeli public would have. Obviously, no proposal that is going to come from any negotiating side is going to be a hundred percent perfect for the other, but even if you look at the wordings, I mean they were as flexible as possible to be able to reach out to the Israelis to say look the Arabs are serious about peace, they genuinely want to move the process forward. I think what they have to look on is the spirit of any declaration or any movement forward. Obviously, once it becomes negotiations then every thing can be worked out, but people tend to look at the fine print on a document like this, and what we should look at is the spirit of what is being offered here by Arab and Muslim nations.
Yaari: Is there a possibility that in case negotiations are resumed full steam with the Palestinians, Israel at the same time or parallel to that will have negotiations with the Arab Quartet with the Muslim countries that join on normalization in the region on the future relationship?
HM King Abdullah: Well, I think everything is possible. I think what we need to do in the short term is to be able to launch the Israeli-Palestinian process that then allows movement on the Arab Muslim side. How the sequencing goes, that is something to be sorted out. But you have this momentum, in other words Israelis and Palestinians are not alone in this process. It is not just the whole international community, but for the first time new dynamics. Here we have Arab and Muslim countries that want to move the peace process forward to finally solve the two-state solution, which then allows for Israel’s full integration into the region.
Yaari: Your Majesty, you were saying right there from the outset that this is a last opportunity, may I ask you to elaborate, what is your concern?
HM King Abdullah: Again, I just think that the opportunities that we have are diminishing, the frequency of conflict is rising rapidly in the Middle East. We went through an unfortunate issue in the summer of 2006 which nobody I think, I mean everybody suffered from this crisis, and I believe that the way the dynamics are changing, that we will find ourselves in a very short period of time with never being able to push the two-state solution. So if we never have the two-state solution, then can we ever have peace between Israelis and Arabs, and Israelis and the whole of the Islamic world? That instability is something that we would all pay for, for the rest of our lives. And so I think that is the commitment of how do you want to bring up your children? Do you want to bring them up in the 50 years of conflict? Is this what we want to give to the children we are bringing up today? Or do we finally want to be able to reach out and bring peace and stability to the Middle East. And unfortunately, where do we have to start is with the Israeli-Palestinian issue that then leads us to a greater stability between Israelis and Arabs.
Yaari: In what way can Jordan help both Israelis and Palestinians get together and get to some framework, which will lead us all into a better future?
HM King Abdullah: Because of the relationship that we have with both sides, we've always been sort of a group of countries that are trying to bring Israelis and Palestinians together, we are supporting the International Quartet or the Arab Quartet or other parties to be able to move forward. So I think we are an honest broker, although I don’t believe that should be a middle man role, and we are there to support Israelis and Palestinians to move the process forward. Again, I think the question at the end of whatever I've been saying today is, if we don’t move forward with the peace process what is the consequence? What is the alternative? The alternative is a very dark and dismal future, I think, for all of us, and I don’t think any of us would want that.
Yaari: Were you able to convince the Americans? Secretary Rice was here two days ago. Were you able to convince them that this is the time to act?
HM King Abdullah: I think what you have seen from Dr. Rice and from President Bush, not just in this visit, but on previous visits to the region, a full commitment to move on the Israeli Palestinian process. Dr. Rice has been here again on her second visit, I believe, in the very near future she should be back again to visit the region. So I do believe that the President of the United States with Dr. Rice has all the intentions to be able to push as hard as they can on the process. So I would say there is a hundred and ten percent commitment from the president and his administration to move this process forward.
Yaari: And at one point then Hamas will either change their position or will not count as much as they do count in Palestinian politics.
HM King Abdullah: I think the problem is, we are always trying to look at the sort of different sides there, I will be quite honest. From the way I see it, there are a lot of players on both sides and even further a field that do not want to move the process forward and we can’t give them that opportunity, because again the alternative is, I think, disaster for all of us. We have to be much more effective and we need to move faster than those groups out there who like to destabilize the process.
Yaari: May I switch, Your Majesty, to another burning topic, which is Iran and its nuclear aspirations. This is going to capture the headlines for the foreseeable future. What is your position?
HM King Abdullah: I think, you know, as I have said previously we always believed in a nuclear free zone, I guess that is not going to be reality in our part of the world. As I said in an interview with an Israeli newspaper recently, the dynamics have changed because there is tremendous interest to go into nuclear energy here. So the dynamics have changed in our part of the world. But as Jordan, we believe that there needs to be transparency on the issue. There is an international standard, international treaties, and we believe that everybody should belong to that club and abide by international concerns when it comes to nuclear energy and any nuclear programs. There is a system out there, and we believe that we all need to be part of that club to show transparency. I think the difficulties we are facing in our part of the world is nuclear ambiguity in an area with lots of conflicts, that creates a lot of tension and sometimes misunderstandings.
Yaari: Iraq. This I am sure a major concern to you and your Kingdom. You have I believe something like 700,000 Iraqis who choose to live now in Jordan because of the unstable situation in Iraq. Do you think there may be a way to stabilize the situation in Iraq, at least achieve the appearance the semblance of a specification so that Iraq can stay a unified entity?
HM King Abdullah: Sure, I mean all the countries in the region and further afield are very concerned about any potential instability inside of Iraq, but we are working with the Iraqi government, and we are working with all sides that we have relations with to make sure that we can down play the sectarian conflict. If this continues to spiral out of control, then it is something that we all are going to pay the price for. So therefore all countries of the region, and, I believe further afield, have to be a hundred percent committed in trying to get the sectarian violence sorted out and trying to give sort of the new Iraq a chance to succeed. It is going to be difficult uphill struggle, but the alternative is also pretty dismal.
Yaari: Do you think there is a chance for the new plan which is being implemented by the Iraqi government, the Americans and their allies, the security plan for Baghdad?
HM King Abdullah: Well, when President Bush was here with Prime Minister Maliki, our concern was as long as the plan was well articulated that it was benchmarked and that we had a time period. So I believe coalition forces and the Iraqi government will have to make an assessment on how successful they have been. If they feel that the plan has been on time, benchmarked properly, then continue with it and if not then call it for what it is and look for alternatives.
Yaari: Thank you very much Your Majesty.
