His Majesty King Abdullah said Iraq will succeed in building an independent state and be able to stand on its own feet.



"I think at the end of the day Iraq will succeed and stand on its own two feet and be independent," His Majesty said in a recent interview with The Washington Post's and Newsweek's Lally Weymouth.



"I think the majority of Kurds, Shia and Sunnis want to save their country. This will protect Iraq from getting into a civil war," King Abdullah said in reply to a question on the situation in Iraq.



His Majesty said Jordan has been urging all Iraqis particularly the Sunni community to take part in building the future of their country and cooperate with the new Iraqi government.



On the issue of the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi, King Abdullah said Iraqi President Jalal Talabani "asked me to look into the Chalabi case to see if we can find a solution to the problem...we believe in a strong relationship with Iraq, so we should exert our best efforts into solving such a problem, an economic and not a political one."



In reply to a question on the Palestinian-Israeli situation, King Abdullah said he is "cautiously optimistic, but I am also concerned that we do have a time issue. We are concentrating on Palestinian security (but) what happens after the withdrawal from Gaza?



"My concern is that we are running out of time on what we consider a viable, independent Palestinian state," His Majesty said.



King Abdullah stressed the necessity of supporting the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "We need the U.S., the Israelis and the international community to help strengthen Abu Mazen's capability. It comes down to financial support. He needs to show the Palestinians that today is better than yesterday," His Majesty said.