King Interviewed By "PBS"

Amman
06 December 2003

His Majesty King Abdullah said that the Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei' is trying to reach a ground for solving the security issues and achieving a ceasefire with the Israelis.



In an interview with American "PBS", the King affirmed that what
the Palestinian prime minister needs is to be met by the Israelis
in the middle of the road by stopping the assassinations, lightening
the burdens of the searching points and the suffering of the Palestinians.


Answering a question on America's interference and its ability to
convince Israel to move towards negotiations, King Abdullah said that
the US can do that but the difference stays on the security issue
and unless this issue is solved the American's can't do anything in
this regard.


Answering a question on the ability of the officials at the Palestinian
authority on stopping attacks against Israeli civilians, the king
said that there will always be extremists on both sides and cannot
be controlled.


The king expressed belief that the Palestinian prime minister is working
hard to achieve a cease fire.


His Majesty affirmed that the main cause now is to enhance the position
of the Palestinian prime minister to enable him to fulfill his duties.



Answering a question on the Geneva Convention, the King said that
anything related to the principles of the peace process and the roadmap
must be a positive subject. The king added that he personally thinks
that the Geneva convention is a very important document and represents
a very positive step adding that "we don't want this document to bring
the roadmap out of its track".


Regarding the Iraqi issue, King Abdullah said:" we have always believed
that the future of Iraq must be for the Iraqis" pointing that the
situation in Iraq is miserable at the time for most people.



The king added that the only way to solve this problem is that the Iraqis should
be back to their streets adding:" the faster we replace the police
and the army with Iraqi police and army to shoulder the responsibility
instead of the foreign forces the more the security situation will
get better".