King Abdullah concludes US visit

His Majesty King Abdullah on Friday concluded a several-day working visit to the US, which included a summit meeting with President Barack Obama and senior administration officials, along with key players in the US political, business circles and three interviews with the media. On Thursday, he gave an interview to PBS network, in which he reiterated Jordan’s position on the crisis on Syria, saying that Jordan will go with the Arab consensus regarding what to do with the Syrian regime, whose crackdown on dissent has claimed more than 5000 lives in less than a year. “We in Jordan will abide by the Arab League and we will work together with them,” he told the network’s Margaret Warren. Asked if he supports UN sanctions, he said: “I think that’s where the dialogue is going.  And again, if you looked at what happened in Libya, it was, I think, bold action taken by the Arab League that allowed UN, NATO and others to firm up their position.  And so if I can predict what will be happening over the near future, again, the relationship between the Arab League and UN on how to take it to the next step”. On demonstration in Jordan and how secure he feels, His Majesty said he feels very secure because he is confident of what he seeks to achieve. “We’ve had, as you said, demonstrations for actually just over a year.  And I think we’re the only country in – well, definitely in the region – and when you look across the world, we’re the only country in 2011, with all the demonstrations that we’ve had, that there was no single loss of life.  And that, I think, talks about the attitude of how we are moving with the reform process.  “Tremendous pride I have with the security services that really took a lot of hard hits to make sure that citizens were protected”. “And today we have a road map.  We will have elections, municipal and national, this year.  There have been a lot of requests by those in opposition to change the way that Jordan does business.  They wanted to change the constitution – actually, at the beginning of the Arab Spring, to the 1952 constitution.  And my view was, if you’re going to look at this constitution, not look at part of it; let’s look at all of it. “And actually, a third of the constitution has been ratified.  The most two important things are constitutional – (inaudible).  And for the election process, and for I think the democratic process of political parties, an independent commission for elections, that then allows the government to step way back and have nothing to do with elections”. Jordan open for business In his remarks at a luncheon held at the American Chamber of Commerce, His Majesty stressed that Jordan is open for business “not despite the Arab Spring, but because of the Arab Spring. He explained that the historic events in the Middle East over the past year have created some economic dislocations that were costly to many markets, weakened investors’ confidence and caused a dramatic decline in tourism receipts in many countries. “Resources that could have been allocated to boost development and growth had to be re-channelled towards emergency social spending and fiscal challenges.” Outlining reform in Jordan, which he said started more than a decade ago and accelerated last year, he said: “Our policy of openness is a strategic choice, and a vital need, for a relatively small country with limited natural resources”.