Last update - 00:00 01/07/2007
Jordan's king rejects confederation with Palestinians
By The Associated Press
Jordan's King Abdullah II flatly rejected a confederation with the Palestinians on Sunday, calling any such proposal at the current time a 'conspiracy' against his kingdom and the Palestinians, a Jordanian newspaper reported.
Despite government assertions to the contrary, speculation has mounted in recent weeks that Jordan may want to assume a protectorate role in the West Bank by forming a confederation with the Palestinians.
In newspaper remarks published Sunday, Abdullah said he was fed up with talking about this issue.
"We reject the formula of confederation and federation and we believe that proposing this issue at this specific period is a conspiracy against both Palestine and Jordan," Abdullah told the independent Al-Ghad newspaper.
Jordan, a key U.S. ally, fears that any confederation before a final settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict could give credence to right-wing Israelis, who have suggested making Jordan a home for the West Bank's Arabs.
Under a 1950 deal, Jordan administered the West Bank and East Jerusalem until Israel captured them in the 1967 Six Day War. Abdullah's father, the late King Hussein, severed administrative links with the West Bank in 1988, handing responsibility to the Palestine Liberation Organization under its late leader, Yasser Arafat.
Hussein said a Jordanian-Palestinian confederation was possible once the Palestinians had an independent state.
In May, an Israeli daily reported that Jordan was pressing hard for a confederation with the Palestinians.
But Abdullah echoed his father's position Sunday, saying it was premature to "talk about the shape of future relations with Palestine and we will not tackle this issue until an independent Palestinian state on Palestinian soil is established."
When asked if Israel or the U.S. were pressuring Jordan to accept a confederation with the Palestinians, he said "we will not accept such solutions no matter what the pressures are."
The king harshly rebuked Israel in the interview, underlining his frustration with its peace policies.
Despite cordial relations with his neighbor under a 1994 peace treaty, Abdullah described Israel as a solid enemy of the Palestinians, saying it will not achieve the security it desires, unless Palestinian political rights are addressed.
Abdullah also rebuked the militant Palestinian Hamas movement for its military takeover of the Gaza Strip last month.
He warned that Hamas' conquest of the coastal strip would undermine Palestinian hopes for ending the "Israeli occupation" and establishing "an independent Palestinians state."
The king said he had hoped for a better outcome for the Palestinians from last week's Mideast summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, but did not elaborate. The meeting brought him together with Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian leaders as a show of support for Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah.