Interview with His Majesty King Abdullah II

Following are excerpts from the King's interview with CNN:

CNN: You made some noise a few weeks ago when you said maybe it's not a good idea to hold the elections in Iraq on January 30. Where exactly do you stand on that?

King Abdullah: Well, maybe I wasn't all that — my statement wasn't clarified to the international press. What I said is that we hope that elections will be on time, that Jordan is working with the Iraqis and the international communities to have elections on January 30.

I did have concerns about the instability. But it's quite apparent to me that the Iraqi government and the international community want to stick to January 30. I don't think that they are going to move on that.

I think that we have a responsibility to reach out to the Sunnis at the moment, who are worried about elections, to say: "Look, elections are going on time, and if you don't commit to the elections, then you're going to miss the boat."

CNN: So they should take place January 30 as scheduled? Is that your sense right now?

King Abdullah: Well, I was concerned about the — the insecurity that we see in Iraq. But at the moment, I think everybody's committed to the date. Unless we hear an alternative of, OK, we delay elections, why are we going to delay elections? It has to be a reasonable programmeme, and I haven't heard any suggestions.

CNN: A lot of the Sunnis ... are concerned. Adnan Pachachi, I interviewed him recently. He thinks maybe there should be a delay because the Sunnis, especially in that Sunni Triangle, are afraid to go out. A lot of them are worried about the security situation.

King Abdullah: What I said to the Sunni leadership is that, you know, if you're going to say delay, that's not good enough. Come up with reasons. Come up with a programmeme. Come up with something that could convince the international community why it should be delayed and for how long. And that hasn't happened.

So I think we're — expecting outstanding circumstances, where elections will be on time. And the Sunnis are going to have to step forward.

CNN: Is the situation in Iraq, based on everything you know, and you live right next door, worse than it was a year ago?

King Abdullah: Well, the daily images present the impression that things are worse. But we want to move Iraqi society forward. There is an opportunity with elections. And I think if we can have elections, that will be a new phase of Iraq, hopefully a better one.

The problem that we have if the Sunnis do not engage in elections, the new government will be mandated in writing the constitution. And my concern is if you're going to write a constitution and part of the society is not involved, that could create its own problems.

So I'm hoping that we, in Jordan, and Arab countries and leaders can convince the Sunnis to go to the polls.

CNN: Are you concerned that Iraqis could split up into a Kurdish sector, Sunni sector and a Shiite sector?

King Abdullah: That is always a concern. And again, my sort of red flag is the constitution. And we have to think out of the box, because you can create circumstances where the constitution is written in such a way that it excludes part of society. And that might push people towards civil war.

But I think all of us in the international community are coming together, supporting the present Iraqi government. It's made very clear the elections are going to be on time, and we have to get everybody involved.

CNN: Let's talk about after Arafat, after Yasser Arafat, the peace process in the Middle East. Now a lot of people think there — because the election's scheduled for January, there's a moment right now where there's an opportunity to jumpstart, to revive these peace — these peace talks. Do you believe there is?

King Abdullah: I think we have a golden opportunity at the moment.

There are new players on the scene. I think Abu Mazen has the ability to be a strong leader for the Palestinian people and create new circumstances so that we can't use the excuse that there's no partner for peace.

This is why I think we're all very excited and very supportive of elections on January 9. We hope that the Palestinian leadership will organise themselves in the next couple of weeks. And right after elections, we need to reinvigorate the roadmap, move the process forward, get Israelis and Palestinians talking to each other.

CNN: Abu Mazen is Mahmoud Abbas...

King Abdullah: Yes.

CNN: ... the leader of the PLO now, after Arafat. He's running for the leadership, the presidency of the Palestinian Authority.

King Abdullah: Yes, yes.

CNN: But he's being challenged by another Palestinian, Marwan Barghouthi...

King Abdullah: Yes.

CNN: ... who's in prison, serving five life sentences.

King Abdullah: Yes. That's right.

CNN: The Israelis convicted him of terrorism. What do you make of that?

King Abdullah: Well, it confuses the issue at the moment. I don't know if it's right at this particular time. What we don't want is a conflict between Palestinian leaderships at a time when they need to identify a leader, move forward and allow the international community to get the Palestinians engaged with the Israelis.

So yes, it's taken a lot of people by surprise. I think we'll just have to watch to see what happens over there next several weeks.

But our aim, I think, as part of the international community, is to get a leader of the Palestinian people identified as quickly as possible and get him engaged with the international community, the Quartet, and the Israelis as soon as possible.

CNN: And — and so you have confidence in Mahmoud Abbas ...?

King Abdullah: ... It comes down to elections. But at the moment, he is a very strong candidate.

CNN: The Israeli withdrawal scheduled from Gaza, should that go forward now unilaterally, or should the Israelis sort of wait and coordinate that with this new Palestinian leadership that emerges?

King Abdullah: Well, again, the issue of Gaza is still not fully defined, and there are still questions being asked by a lot of us. We hope that the pullout of Gaza is part and parcel of the roadmap.

If it's a side issue, I think it will confuse the process. And it's still not 100 per cent confirmed of what is happening in Gaza, what is the endgame. As long as it's part of the process, of the final peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians, fine. But that hasn't been clarified fully.

CNN: I've been hearing from some Americans who have recently met with Bashar Assad, the president of Syria, that he's ready to start negotiations with the Israelis once again right now.

King Abdullah: Yes.

CNN: But you live right next to him. What do you think?

King Abdullah: Well, we've had the same signals. They seem to be positive. I believe that whenever statements are made like this, let's see where that will lead us. Bashar will be coming to Jordan the next couple of weeks. I hope to see and hear positive things from him. [We] hope that we can move the process between the Israelis and the Syrians forward.

CNN: ... The big decision you made in recent days to have the crown prince no longer be the crown prince. A lot of our viewers are interested in that. They're interested in your monarchy.

But what was the story behind the story?

King Abdullah: Well, just before His Majesty passed away, he had said that ... it should just be a law that is with very limited capabilities. I have four very strong brothers, very, very capable. Two of them — Hamzah was the crown prince — coming back to serve Jordan within the next 12 months.

And basically, this allows him to be able to expand his horizons, get involved in the issues that he cares about that I believe will really serve the country, as opposed to being limited by the title, which His Majesty the late [King Hussein] had dictated.

CNN: Is he happy about this?

King Abdullah: I think this opens more opportunity for him, so it's a challenge, because it means that, you know, he'll work closer with me, I hope, and be able to have more of a breadth of getting involved in Jordanian society.

He has a lot of capabilities that he can bring towards this country, and I'm looking forward to his return. And I think that you'll see tremendous things from him.

CNN: And your son is now effectively the cown prince?

King Abdullah: No. He's only 10 years old, and the way that the system has been done is that the role of crown prince will not be filled. Depending on circumstances, if anything should happen, there are instructions and there's a system in place.