Monday, November 27, 2006
Jordan's King warns of three Middle Eastern wars if no action is taken
Politics, Security, Region
The Middle East is on the verge of three civil wars - In Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories - unless urgent action is taken by the international community, King Abdullah of Jordan has warned. He said that "something dramatic" must come out of George Bush's meeting with Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, to stop the violence. The United States must look at the "big picture" and seek Middle Eastern solutions involving all the regional players, he told ABC's This Week programme. He said there would be another decade or two of violence if a regional peace process was not developed soon.
The US president will meet al-Maliki in Amman, the capital of Jordan, on Wednesday to discuss the way forward for Iraq. Abdullah hoped al-Maliki would have ideas for Bush on how to be "inclusive" in bringing together different groups in Iraq. In a separate interview, Iraq's security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, said that Iraq was already a regional battleground, with Islamic movements from several Arab countries funding the groups fighting the Iraqi government and the US army. He added that Iran was "helping some of the extremist Shia groups in Iraq," but said there was no evidence Iran was helping al-Qaeda or anti-government fighters in Iraq. Jordan's King Abdullah said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remained the "emotional core issue" of the Middle East.
