Ammon News - WASHINGTON (Petra) His Majesty King Abdullah II and US President Barack Obama on Friday held a summit meeting on bilateral ties, regional developments, especially the Syrian crisis and efforts to realize a just and comprehensive peace.
In remarks before the summit, the King expressed heartfelt condolences on the tremendous tragedies both in Boston for the bombings, as well as that of Texas especially that of Boston.
"We've always stood together in our fight against terrorism, and this is an issue that we will always be strong partners there," the King said.
On the peace process, the King said " in our meeting in Jordan, we had mentioned this is the homework stage. Jordan will continue to work very closely with the Palestinians, the Israelis and the Americans to see how we can bring both sides closer together".
One of the major concerns that brings us here to Washington together is obviously the challenge with Syria, the fragmentation of Syrian society, which is becoming more and more alarming, the King noted.
The King pointed out that "since Obama's recent visit to Jordan five weeks ago, Jordan had over 60,000 refugees up to over half a million, so we're at 10 percent of an increase of our population".
We're so grateful to the support that you and the American people have given to our country, the King said.
King Abdullah noted that Jordan and the US are both working very hard to look for a political solution for a Syria that is one that is inclusive so that we're bringing everybody together, which is sort of our last hope to as we're now seeing the surge of the second threat appear, which is that of militant terrorist organizations that have risen over the past several months.
I am confident, with your leadership and with meetings that we will have today, that we can find a mechanism to bring a solution to an end as quickly as possible, the King said.
"You had the Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed, who is one of our strongest strategic allies. And I know that is his position with the United States, as well as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia the three of us are working very hard in cooperation with the United States to try to find a quick and just solution to the Syrian crisis", the King said.
On his part, Obama said that Jordan is a great partner to the United States on a whole host of issues.
I want to congratulate His Majesty on a series of reforms that he’s initiating inside of Jordan, and we want to find out how we can continue to be supportive and helpful in creating greater economic opportunity and prosperity in the area, Obama added.
"We have been supportive with respect to loan guarantees and other efforts, in part because we’ve also seen King Abdullah take some very important steps to further open democratization and entrepreneurship and economic development inside of Jordan. We want to encourage that because we think Jordan can be an extraordinary model for effective governance in the region" Obama said.
He added that "we’re also going to have an opportunity to talk about the Middle East peace process. And the last time I saw King Abdullah, I’d just come out of Israel and the West Bank in consultations with Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas. And Jordan, like the United States, has an enormous stake in peace. And we do think that there’s a window of opportunity that needs to be seized, and so we will both consult in how we can jumpstart serious conversations that could lead to a peaceful settlement and both a secure Israel with normalized relations with its neighbors and a Palestinian state that was sovereign." On Syria, Obama said the situation is of great urgency right now. "Jordan has experienced a huge influx of refugees coming into the country from Syria, people who’ve been displaced. Jordan historically has maintained open borders and allowed these refugees on a humanitarian basis to come in, but it’s an enormous strain on a small country. And we are mobilizing international support to help with these refugees, but obviously our goal is to a stable Syria, where civilians are not at risk", he said.
President Assad has lost legitimacy and that we need to find a political transition that allows a multi-sect, democratic transition to take place so that Syria can be a place where all people can live in peace and harmony, Obama said.
He added that he has asked his people to brief Congress about the fact that we now have some evidence that chemical weapons have been used on the populations in Syria. " Now, these are preliminary assessments; they’re based on our intelligence gathering. We have varying degrees of confidence about the actual use, but there are a range of questions around how, when, where these weapons may have been used" Obama said.
We’re going to be pursuing a very vigorous investigation ourselves, and we’re going to be consulting with our partners in the region as well as the international community and the United Nations to make sure that we are investigating this as effectively and as quickly as we can, the US President said.
He added that "to use potential weapons of mass destruction on civilian populations crosses another line with respect to international norms and international law. And that is going to be a game changer." We have to act prudently. We have to make these assessments deliberately. But I think all of us, not just in the United States but around the world, recognize how we cannot stand by and permit the systematic use of weapons like chemical weapons on civilian populations, Obama said.
On the other hand, the King and Obama outlined regional developments and stressed the need to find a comprehensive political solution to the Syrian unrest that can put an end to the suffering of the Syrian people and secure its territorial integrity.
The King noted that the Syrian crisis has reached an unprecedented alarming level and warned of the potentially catastrophic consequences the violence may have on the region if it is not resolved soon.
He pointed out that Jordan has received an influx of thousands of Syrian refugees, placing massive burdens on Jordan's infrastructure and services especially schools and healthcare.
On the Palestinian issue, King Abdullah said the Palestinian cause remains the crux of the conflict in the Middle East, stressing the need to exert efforts to revive peace negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis and establish an independent Palestinian state based on the two-state solution, living in peace and security alongside Israel.
The King also thanked the US for its support to Jordan to face challenges, stressing the strong bilateral cooperation between the two sides.
The meeting was attended by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah II, Royal Court Chief Fayez Tarawneh, Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, Director of the King's Office Imad Fakhoury, and Jordan's Ambassador in Washington Alia Bouran.
On the US side, the meeting was attended by US Secretary of State John Kerry and other senior officials.
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