Bush and Abdullah differ over attacking Saddam
President George Bush and key Arab ally, Jordan’s King Abdullah, have disagreed over a possible US attack to topple Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and the pace of American peacemaking in the Middle East.
The king yesterday soft-pedalled his opposition to a potential US military strike against Baghdad. But Bush, in an Oval Office photo session with the monarch, made clear he had not changed his mind about considering “all tools” to bring about regime change in Iraq.
Abdullah responded mildly: “I found from day one with the president he understands the bigger picture.”
On the peacemaking front, like most Arab and European leaders, the Jordanian king is appealing to Bush to put heat on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza and to move more aggressively to set up the Palestinian state Bush has said he envisages for the Middle East.
A day after terrorists struck Israel again, killing seven people – including five Americans – at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Bush insisted that security against terror must be in place first.
He said his goal was “a security force in the Palestinian territory that will be able to help deal with those who want to destroy the prospects for peace”.
Visibly moved by the university bombing, Bush said: “I am just as angry as Israel is. I am furious.”
However, he said, “Even though I am mad, I still think peace is possible.”
Bush said he was seeking the co-operation of Arab governments in tracking down the perpetrators of the bombing, and White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the United States was in contact with the American embassy in Tel Aviv in an effort to develop investigative leads.
The FBI has opened an investigation, in co-operation with Israeli authorities, a senior administration official said last night.
However, Bush refrained from saying whether the murder of Americans would take his war against terror to a new level.
“We are responding all across the globe to murders of Americans,” he said. “We responded in Afghanistan to murders. We responded in the Philippines. We’re responding by working with our American friends, and Israel, of course, to track these people down,” he said.
For his part, Abdullah stressed the need to move ahead in peacemaking.
“You have really given us hope that once and for all we will be able to move forward as Arabs and Israelis to be able to live in peace and harmony and have a tremendous future,” the king said.
In an obvious thrust at Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader whose ousting Bush already has demanded, the president said security arrangements must protect people and not the “whims” of one man.
Later, Bush met Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres, joining a meeting Peres held with Condoleezza Rice, the president’s national security adviser.
“Basically, we see eye-to-eye,” Peres said afterwards. “To get rid of terror at large and suicide bombers particularly.”
Then, after talking to deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage, Peres said “deep in their heart” most people in the Middle East thought Saddam Hussein was a danger.
“He kills right and left,” Peres said. “Who needs him?”
Jordan’s opposition to a conflict with Saddam Hussein is rooted in a strong economic relationship with Jordan’s bigger and more powerful neighbour. Iraq provides Jordan’s entire daily requirement of 90,000 barrels of oil at preferential rates.
