Amman, 11/10/2002, (Communication & Information Division - Royal Hashemite Court) - In an Interview with MBC television station, King Abdullah stated that Jordan rejects any influx of refugees either from its western or eastern borders. “Jordan will not accept any influx of Iraqi or other refugees,” His Majesty told the Middle East Broadcasting Corporation (MBC).

“We will not allow the setting up of camps for any refugee, whether of Iraqi or any other nationality, on Jordanian soil,” affirmed the King.

“If we are considering here the passage of refugees to their homelands through Jordan, such camps should be erected on Iraqi lands.”

Jordan's borders will be “impenetrable in the face of any Israeli attempt to forcefully transfer Palestinians or expel them from their homeland,” the King stressed.

He reiterated Jordan's stands vis-à-vis the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and Iraq, making clear once again that Jordan will not be a party to the settlement of either question.

Talk of a confederation or federation between the Kingdom and a future Palestinian state is “an attempt to plant seeds of strife and suspicion between the two peoples, and to interfere in Palestinian and Jordanian decisions,” the King stated.

He also sought to silence once and for all speculation by certain media on a return of the Hashemites to Iraq. “Jordan is not considering any role whatsoever in Iraq,” he affirmed.

“We are committed not to interfere in the internal affairs of any neighbouring, friendly or brethren state and expect others to treat us on the same lines.”

“I am the head of the Hashemite family and clearly state herewith that the Hashemites have no ambitions to return to govern Iraq.

“If any individual who belongs to this family thinks otherwise, he represents only but himself.”

The King reiterated Jordan's belief that the Iraqi issue should be settled through dialogue with the UN, without resorting to military means and to a new war, “which would have devastating results on the peoples of the whole region.”

The US administration knows very well that Jordan will not allow its soil or airspace to be used as a launch-pad in any eventual strike against Baghdad, he also reaffirmed.

Although during the 1991 Gulf War the flow of Iraqi oil to Jordan was not interrupted, should oil supplies be discontinued as a result of a military operation in the future, “some international arrangement should be made to guarantee” that the Kingdom's energy needs are met, the King said.

“Oil is an accessible commodity in all markets and one can buy it,” he added.

On the domestic front, His Majesty called on all citizens to exercise their right to vote in the next general elections, this spring, and to select candidates “with integrity, sense of belonging, ability, education and knowledge.”

The King said ties between some local political parties and foreign countries were “unacceptable.”

“The presence in Jordan of parties with non-Jordanian references or that receive orders or financing from abroad is unacceptable,” he stated, citing the Jordan Communist Party, “a branch of the communist party in many countries of the world,” the Baath parties, affiliated to Iraq and Syria, and the Islamic Action Front, linked through the Muslim Brotherhood with other Islamist parties around the world.

“The programmes, objectives, membership and financing of every party operating in Jordanian territory ought to be purely Jordanian,” he said.

The current 30 or so political parties should merge and consolidate, His Majesty said, into “two or three parties, representing for example the right, the center and the left.