Interview with His Majesty King Abdullah II

King Abdullah: Good morning, Katie. How are you?

NBC: Fine, thank you. What is your reaction to the fact that Israeli troops have begun to withdraw their tanks from two cities in the West Bank? Do you see this as good news?

King Abdullah: This is definitely good news. I hope that all military operations will cease as quickly as possible. Already, Jordan humanitarian support has moved into the West Bank through the land system in trucks. And our air force is landing blood supplies to many of the innocent people in all these cities that need medical support at the moment.

NBC: I know that your wife, Queen Rania, is from one of the towns, Tulkarim, that the Israelis are pulling out of right now. She participated in a demonstration this morning, protesting the Israeli action on the West Bank. Your country is 45 per cent Palestinian.

There's fear that this recent conflict is affecting you and your government's stability. How concerned are you about that?

King Abdullah: I'm not worried about stability here in Jordan but what I will say is that Jordanians of Palestinian origin and Jordanians of Jordanian origin, all of us, are frustrated, and angry and dispirited about what is going on with the Palestinian people and the suffering that is happening to all those in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jenin, and other places in the West Bank.

NBC: I know you've said the situation had never looked so dangerous. Just last night, you addressed your nation, saying if Israel's atrocities against the Palestinians didn't end quickly, its ties with Jordan would be affected. What did you mean by that?

King Abdullah: Well, again, talking about the relationship that we have with Israel, the difference is that we have relations with Israel and with the Palestinians. And that's why we believe that the military incursion is a tremendous mistake, that the Israeli army needs to pull out as quickly as possible. But also, because we have this relationship, we have the ability to bring humanitarian support and assistance to the Palestinians that are suffering under tremendous humanitarian pressure and we needed to be able, if we believe in this friendship, to be able to move into the West Bank and support the Palestinians in their time of need by getting the most basic necessities of support and supplies to them. As you know, ambulances are being shot at. Aid workers are not being allowed to go to the major cities. People are suffering and our comment yesterday was that Israel needs to be flexible to allow us to be able to get in and help people that are under siege in all these cities.

NBC: On Monday Your Majesty, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon said that he was willing to talk peace with quote, “moderate Arab leaders.” The head of the Arab League said quote, “there was no chance in hell.” Jordan, as you mentioned, is only one of two Arab nations who does have a relationship with Israel, you and Egypt. Would you be willing to meet with Ariel Sharon?

King Abdullah: Well, again, we have a relationship where we want to be able to use the goodness of the relationships that we have with all parties to be able to push the peace process forward. And I believe that in Beirut, again we have to remind ourselves that the Arab countries all came together to offer the olive branch to Israel, that we want to have peace, that we do want to have normal relations with Israel. But for God's sake, give a chance to the Palestinians to have their future. And if we can take it a step further, not only do we need the de-escalation of the military action and get the Palestinians and Israelis back to talking with each other, but also, with the American administration, we have to pursue the... Saudi initiative, which was endorsed in Beirut, to bring a larger peace around. And that will eventually take hold of Israelis having to talk to the rest of the Arab world.

NBC: But at this point in time, you would be willing to sit down at a table with Ariel Sharon?

King Abdullah: Well, I think it's more important at this time that Prime Minister Sharon sits down with Arafat. That's where the problem is. We, as we said, have normal relations with Israel, but that's not the issue. The issue now is getting the Israelis and Palestinians to sit down together and sort their problems as quickly as possible.

NBC: And obviously Jordan and Egypt and the rest of the Arab world will support that. You last spoke to Yasser Arafat about a week ago after his compound in Ramallah had come under Israeli control. Did you urge him, Your Majesty, to condemn the suicide bombings?

King Abdullah: I urged him absolutely to be as receptive and as positive as possible. I had detailed discussions on the danger of his situation that he needed to be able to control the street as much as he could, because I could see that the Israeli military incursion would be destructive to his people. And I believe that he is in a tremendously strong position now. He is the most popular person in the Middle East at the moment and maybe even farther afield then that. So he has the strength now, I believe, to take advantage of Secretary Powell's visit to the region, to be able once and for all sit down with the Israelis and move to George Mitchell. And again, terrorism does not help the situation at all in this area, but instead of saying terrorism we're saying terror. Terror is being inflicted all over the West Bank at the moment.

NBC: We only have a few seconds left, but he had the opportunity to condemn suicide bombers after the Passover attack in Natania. Instead, he praised the martyrs. He's had other opportunities since, on Al-Jazeera television. Isn't it imperative that he does condemn suicide bombing and terrorism and he does so in Arabic?

King Abdullah: I don't, we, in Jordan, do not condone terrorism and I don't even condone or support anything that even resembles terror or suicide bombings. But I think what we have to understand is this is a people under occupation. They've been under occupation for 35 years. Desperate people taking desperate measures. I don't agree with it, but we have to understand that this is not a security issue. This is a political issue and that's what we have to remember at the end of the day. We have, the Israelis have to deal with this as a political problem. People under occupation that want to have their freedom. And the more that we keep it a security issue the more we breed terrorism, and we'll never be able to solve our problems unless we can move beyond that.

NBC: King Abdullah of Jordan. Your Majesty, again, thank you so much for talking with us this morning.

King Abdullah: Thank you, Katie.

Courtesy: NBC News / Today