His Majesty King Abdullah on Tuesday said the Arab Spring is a pivotal stage in Arab history. “At the end of the day, when we all look back at some point in the future, this is a defining moment for the Middle East,” he stressed in an interview with The Times British daily in London.
The King said Jordan is currently going through an “Arab summer”, where work should be focused on preparing for elections. “When you look at other countries, you go from Arab spring into Arab summer, which is where I think we are now… The work ahead of us now, and we are in the Arab summer, is to get to elections,” he explained.
“We’re down now to the technical details...I’m encouraging the government to sit down and put a roadmap in front of everybody so that people realise what needs to move forward.”
“What we want to see in Jordan is two to five political parties representing left, right and centre as quickly as possible to lead to a government elected by the people. The challenge from that is defining left, right and centre.”
He said the formation of such political parties needs time but Jordan cannot afford to wait for too long. “We have elections in 2012, but we won’t have left, right and centre by then,” the King elaborated, adding that a possible way to act would be to work with blocs and coalitions until political parties are strengthened, hopefully by the following legislature, in five years. “I think the expectations of people are that they want elections today. It would be wiser to bring together coalitions that would form blocs on the left and blocs on the right. That is what I am leaning to. I don’t think we can afford five years.”
On Syria, the King said the core problem is not the individual, President Bashar Assad, but the system. “If Bashar leaves the scene for whatever reason, his replacement as an Alawi leader, will he get it? That the world has changed? Will the system allow for that? So you’ll probably get the same again. It’s the system, not the individual.”
His Majesty said of President Assad: “I believe that there is reform in his blood. I sit with him and listen to his vision for Syria, I think he gets it. But does the system allow somebody with reform in his blood to do that? I don’t think the system allows for that.”
King Abdullah said the greatest fear is that sectarian polarisation might shred the fabric of Syrian society. “If you look at Kurds, Druze, Sunni, Alawi, Christians and Sunni elite, there are different minority groups that put together become a majority. What you don’t want to see is a fragmentation of Syrian society.”
“We don’t want a bloodbath in Syria. We’re reaching out on a humanitarian basis. We are prepared on the border for an influx of more refugees to come over,” he said, adding that “we’re keeping our fingers crossed and reaching out to Arab colleagues, and discussing with the international community, but nobody has got an answer”.
Responding to a question on dealing with Israel, the King said there were no indications that the Israeli government is seriously interested in reviving the peace talks with the Palestinians. “We have been in contact. I haven’t seen or spoken to the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] in quite some time because I got to a point where I didn’t see anything to me that justified seriousness on behalf of the Israeli government.”
“The lack of a peace process limits Israel’s options,” he warned, adding: “The Arab Spring overshadowed the strong discussions that Israel was going to be addressed with by the international community.”
His Majesty reiterated that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict remains the region’s core issue. “The train wreck that is waiting to happen is the Israeli-Palestinian problem. As we talk about the Arab Spring and Iran, we keep forgetting the core issue.”
“We’ve seen the problems at the United Nations in the General Assembly… The only alternative was to work together and get both sides to the table. And nobody really did anything here… It wasn’t until six weeks before that everyone started to scramble.”
The King also commended British and European efforts to pressure the two sides to return to negotiations.
On Iran’s nuclear ambitions, he said they “could very easily set off a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, which would be disastrous for all of us”. “The IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] reports were very damaging to Iran. I’m sure Israel and the United States always have a military plan, but I haven’t heard anything in the last couple of days which suggests to me that people are seriously considering military options.”