Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 8, 1991 TAG: 9102080369
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: AMMAN, JORDAN LENGTH: Medium
In a speech Wednesday night, the king said war against Iraq was a "Third World war . . . a war against all Arabs and Muslims."
It was a cry from the heart that delighted his strongly pro-Iraqi subjects and baffled many of his Western supporters. It is certain to increase the isolation Jordan has found itself in by its sympathy for Saddam Hussein.
The monarch's broadside appeared to be both a warning to Arabs and an appeal to the outside world to ensure that the war does not shatter Iraq and leave Israel to forever hold the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip - or expand further.
The tone of the speech helped fan persistent local fears that Israel plans to invade Jordan, or expel Palestinians across the Jordan River to make the kingdom a Palestinian state.
Israeli leaders reacted cautiously.
"Whatever happens there can have an influence on what happens with us," Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said. "I hope that both Jordan and we will pass this wave safely."
The king's remarks were also an ominous suggestion for allied forces that Arab sentiment might be turning further against them - a sentiment the king is skilled at reading after 37 years on the throne.
The speech seems sure to worsen Hussein's already crippled relations with once-key Arab allies - Saudi Arabia, Syria and Egypt.
The speech will also strain his ties with the United States and Western Europe, which are crucial to the international aid on which Jordan's stumbling economy now relies.
A Jordanian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. Ambassador Rodger Harrison met with Foreign Minister Taher Masri to express "anger" over the tone and content of the speech.
President Bush told reporters he had a "major disagreement" with the king, who had said the U.S. and its allies were waging an unjust war. "It's not true," Bush said.
Hussein's shift will make Israelis and U.S. Arab allies more inclined to ignore Hussein, along with the pro-Iraqi Palestine Liberation Organization, as they plan for a post-war Middle East.
But Jordan, a key to regional stability for decades, may prove impossible to ignore.
None of the states on Jordan's border - aside from Iraq, they are Israel, Saudi Arabia and Syria - can afford to see Jordan in chaos, or under the sway of another state.
And the king's embrace of a seemingly doomed Arab neighbor will raise his popularity among a frustrated population where Islamic fundamentalism is a powerful, rising political force.
"He's caught up with the people," said Rami Khoury, a prominent Jordanian publisher and journalist.
Hussein's tone was a sharp shift from the careful neutrality he had tried to maintain in previous speeches, when he unsuccessfully tried to mediate between Iraq and its Arab foes.
by CNB