Jordan King warns of three civil wars
Pastor Dale Morgan
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*Jordan King warns of three civil wars*
By Susan Cornwell
November 27, 2006 08:40am
Article from: Reuters
THE Middle East was on the verge of three civil wars - in Iraq, Israel
and Lebanon - unless strong action was taken urgently by the
international community, Jordan's King Abdullah warned today.
With US President George W Bush heading to Amman this week to talk with
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, King Abdullah said "something
dramatic" must come from that meeting to stop violence spinning out of
control in Iraq.
"I don't think we're in a position where we can come back and revisit
the problem in early 2007," he said on ABC's This Week.
But the United States must also look at the "big picture" and seek
comprehensive Middle Eastern solutions involving all regional players,
he said - indicating this should include Syria and Iran.
"We're juggling with the strong potential of three civil wars in the
region, whether it's the Palestinians, that of Lebanon or of Iraq," the
Jordanian king said.
"We could possibly imagine going into 2007 and having three civil wars
on our hands. And therefore, it is time that we really take a strong
step forward as part of the international community and make sure we
avert the Middle East from a tremendous crisis that I fear, and I see
could possibly happen in 2007," King Abdullah said.
With Iraq near all-out civil war, the Bush administration is renewing
efforts to break the cycle of violence there by enlisting the help of
moderate Arab nations.
US Vice President Dick Cheney has just returned from a visit to Saudi
Arabia and talks on the Middle East, and Mr Bush and Mr Maliki are to
meet in the Jordanian capital Amman on Wednesday and Thursday for what
is shaping up to be a crisis summit.
King Abdullah said he hoped Mr Maliki would have ideas for Mr Bush on
how to be "inclusive" in bringing together different groups in Iraq.
"And they need to do it now, because, obviously, as we're seeing, things
are beginning to spiral out of control ... there needs to be some very
strong action taken on the ground there today," he said.
Mr Bush has so far avoided the hands-on approach to Middle East
peacemaking of his predecessors, but that may change as he turns to
advice from former Secretary of State James Baker, who is leading a
review on Iraq policy.
King Abdullah said he was worried about Lebanon, where the recent
killing of an anti-Syrian politician has revived fears that factional
violence could spiral again. But he said the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict remained the "emotional core issue" of the Middle East. Jordan
hosts the largest number of Palestinians outside the West Bank and Gaza
Strip.
The king warned that if a regional peace process did not develop
shortly, "there won't be anything to talk about" and the Middle East
would face another decade or two of violence.