Jordan’s King Abdullah II has warned of the danger of a ‘summer war’ in the Middle East, should an upcoming Arab summit on the Middle East ‘peace process’ prove futile.
Speaking to the media, the Jordanian king said that a meeting of Arab countries will be held in July to discuss the so-called Mideast peace process.
He stressed the importance of the results of the meeting, saying there should be changes by July or war is inevitable.
King Abdullah warned: ‘If we hit the summer and there’s no active process, there’s a very good chance for conflict – and nobody wins when it comes to that.’
He added: ‘What we’re hoping for is active engagement by the Palestinians with the Americans, the Israelis with the Americans.
‘If we stay at the status quo, others in the region are not sitting idly by.
‘So the chance of conflict is always very high. War would be disastrous for the Israelis, for the Arabs, for all of us,’ the Jordanian monarch concluded.
l Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday that the pervasive presence of US-led military forces in the Middle East is the main reason behind regional conflicts.
Speaking at a ceremony commemorating Iran’s National Army Day, Ahmadinejad said that disunity and strife among Mideast countries stems from the lingering presence of foreign coalition troops and military bases across the region.
He asserted: ‘If foreign forces deem themselves capable of promoting security and stability, they should make themselves useful in their own countries.
‘There is no need, or pretext for foreign forces to prolong their stay in this region,’ he continued in a reference to the deployment of US and NATO troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Ahmadinejad added: ‘Foreign forces should leave this region at once.
‘This is not a request, but a sincere demand of the entire population of the Middle East.’
Singling out Israel as the main instigator of violence and terror in the region, he said: ‘The Zionist regime is behind all acts of sedition in the Middle East.’
Adding that the regional nations want Israel to be uprooted, Ahmadinejad said that Zionism has begun to collapse under the strain of its ‘divisive policies in the region’.
The Iranian President also issued a stern warning to foreign powers, saying that while his country has always supported peaceful co-existence with other nations, it is well capable of defending itself in the event of war.