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Prince Hassan's Alarm

(Washington Times) Arnaud de Borchgrave - Jordan's Prince Hassan bin Talal, the former crown prince and King Abdullah's uncle, warned in an exclusive UPI interview about "the increasing control by Islamist fundamentalists of the masses of poor people." In Washington last week, Prince Hassan also rang the alarm to warn about Jordan's increasingly perilous situation in the wake of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plans for the West Bank. "If Jordan sits back and accepted developments as they are and does not play a proactive role, it is conceivable that far from breaking the deadlock in West Bank terms, what is an ideological movement [called Hamas] could spread to Jordan and the rest of the region," he explained. Prince Hassan thinks it's time to revisit the International Trusteeship Council to replace the now defunct two-state Palestine-Israel solution. He notes the Israeli-occupied territories were occupied from Jordan, which "invokes a great deal of residual sovereignty." "It is Jordan's responsibility," he said, "to address the question of free and fair elections whereby all Jordanians of Palestinian origin are invited to be included - inclusion, not assimilation - in Jordan....We can then turn to the Palestinians and say, 'You have found your safe haven and contributed to it. We have not put to rest your hopes and dreams about a right to return [to what is now Israel] - though this remains a pipedream - and we are not an alternative to Palestine.'" Prince Hassan recalled the late Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban advocated the Benelux concept for Israel, Palestine, and Jordan, or independence within a larger economic union.
2006-06-05 00:00:00
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