Interview with His Majesty King Abdullah II

ABC: Your Majesty, why are you so encouraged about what has happened here today?

King Abdullah: Well, I was encouraged because of the strong commitment of the president of the United States to see this through to the end and willing to take a lot risk to do so, as well as actually the success of getting the Palestinians and the Israelis to commit to some pretty substantial position in a very short period of time.

ABC: You congratulated the president today for having stayed the course. In fact, the course is really just beginning.

King Abdullah: Well, I congratulated him because when I first met him, he said one of his priorities was the peace process. He was the first American president to say “a viable Palestinian state,” first president to give a timeline of roughly three years. And so today is probably the first step here on the ground in the region but it is something he has been working to and has made some pretty courageous decisions as the president of the United States.

ABC: And are you absolutely sure that he will stay the course? There are those who say that come an American election, he may be distracted?

King Abdullah: Well, this is a question I think that was on everybody's mind. Well, the president is a very smart individual and I believe that he would not have committed himself to the process without taking into consideration the elections. So being the type of person who likes to see the glass half full, I have to believe that he will see this through to the end no matter what.

ABC: Do you think that the American military victory in Iraq made the difference to this?

King Abdullah: Well, again in my discussions with the president he was committed to overthrowing Saddam as well as he was committed to the peace process. And you know I am sure that the quick military victory made the things easier. But I think he would have come around to the Israeli-Palestinian issue no matter what.

ABC: Do you think the military victory in Iraq gives a president additional authority in the region?

King Abdullah: I think there was additional pressure on him, uh, by the sceptics in this part of the world to show that he had a balanced approach. As committed as he was to regime change and removing Saddam, he had to show also that he was committed to the Israeli-Palestinian issue, which I think we saw today.

ABC: You made reference today to the fact that your father had signed a peace treaty with the Israelis. In the years since, it's been a pretty cold peace and Jordan has on more than one occasion has lived with the fear that the Israelis were going to expel all the Palestinians from the occupied territories here. Why has that changed?

King Abdullah: I never, lived in that fear. And I think that the relationship we have the Israelis, I knew that wasn't an equation. Um, obviously, the rumour mill and those that want to be negative had always used that insider society to be a source of fear and suspicion. We had had a warm peace. The intifada did not help. And the difficulty that the Palestinians have suffered over the past three or four years did put a lot of strain on the bilateral relations. I hope that Palestinians and Israelis coming back together now allows situations to get back to normal.

ABC: Do you think the Palestinians brought this recent tragedy down on themselves?

King Abdullah: No, this was a situation that unfortunately broke out for many reasons two and a half years ago. And I think that with the presence of [Palestinian] Prime Minister [Mahmoud] Abbas I think things will be back on track. We needed to have a government that was effective that reached out to the Palestinians and their aspirations and now I think there is a responsibility for the Palestinians to be able to achieve what has been asked from them. And I have a lot of faith in Prime Minister Abbas to be able to do that.

ABC: And what about Yasser Arafat?

King Abdullah: Well, the president is going to have to obviously give his government the full support. If he doesn't and if there is a fracturing of unity inside the Palestinian arena, it's going to be the Palestinians that are going to pay the price.

ABC: The Israeli prime minister, Mr. [Ariel] Sharon, said very clearly today that he was looking in the future when Israel was a Jewish state, which means, I think, many people believe that he does not agree to the Palestinian refugees' right to return. Do you agree with that position?

King Abdullah: This has always been a bone of contention between Arabs and Israelis and between the Israelis and the international community going back to United Nations resolutions. And therefore, with the Arab commitment on refugees was to an agreed- upon situation so there's going to be a lot of flexibility by the Arabs, but at the end of the day, we are going to have to find a solution. The reason why it hasn't been pushed up front is to give both the Israelis and the Palestinians a fair chance and a fairly level playing field to start the process. There are going to be difficult issues not only refugees but also Jerusalem that can be tackled at a later stage.

ABC: Do you now trust the Israeli prime minister, Mr. Sharon?

King Abdullah: Well, His Late Majesty always said that the prime minister was a man of his word. And so, we'll have to see. He's committed himself to where we are today as have the Palestinians and we have to see that both sides actually hold up their end of the bargain.

ABC: Mr Sharon has said for much of his career that Palestine is Jordan and that he will never take down a single settlement in the occupied territories. What do you think has changed him, if he has changed?

King Abdullah: Well, again, I think that with the meetings between my late father and Prime Minister Sharon in the late 90s, I think Prime Minister Sharon changed his view of Jordan as Palestine. And as for the settlements, he made a commitment in front of the president. I think he will stick to it and I think we will see some changes.

ABC: Many thanks, thank you.