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Ammon News - Former minister and ambassador Dr. Ahmad Masa’deh said that NATO’s decision to chose Jordan as a host for NATO liaison office comes as no surprise and a testimony about the Jordanian role because the Kingdom is a beacon of stability in terms of regional and global security and has been a long-time champion in fighting transnational threats, including extremism and terrorism. This comes as a result of the long and deep-rooted relationship between Jordan and NATO during which the country has maintained an active role in the Alliance’s initiatives.

The remarks of the former Jordanian ambassador to NATO and the EU came during a conference held in Rome last week under the title of “Arab Geopolitics 2024” organized by the NATO Defence College Foundation under auspices of NATO with a large attendance of diplomats, politicians, and international organizations and companies representatives.

Masa’deh also said that the opening of the office will deepen the political dialogue between Jordan and other Arab countries and the alliance and create cooperation programs in fields such as terrorism and security, climate change, civil emergency planning, public diplomacy, and artificial intelligence (AI).

However, Masa’deh warned that cooperation efforts could prove futile because of the situation in the region. He said that the region is heterogeneous because of Israeli actions over the past 6 decades. While the Arab countries ended hostility and embarked on a peace process with the aim of establishing a Palestinian state, Israel on the other hand has continuously violated international law and its obligations under the United Nations Resolutions on the conflict in the region, derailed the peace process, and eventually over the past year has committed genocide crimes against the Palestinians in Gaza and war crimes against Lebanon.

Masa’deh also flagged out that any Israeli intention affecting Jordanian interests that aims to put Jordan in a complicated situation in the future will fire back on Israel itself and be also detrimental to the interest of NATO and the EU with more extremism and radicalism mushrooming in the region.

To align discourse on cooperation and reality and to make the region homogeneous again, Israel must be made legally and politically accountable, under scrutiny, and upholding its international obligations, Masa’deh added. Failing to do that cooperation initiatives will not fulfill their goals. One key element in doing that is to regain credibility in the international values system about human dignity and rights, traditionally promoted by the West, which was tarnished as a result of the latest events and to re-empower UN agencies and respect their roles. And in order to regain this value system, the former Jordanian official said that the international community must address the core of the problem and is the failure to find a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict by way of establishing a Palestinian state rather than focusing on side effects such as maritime safety in the Red Sea.

Masa’deh said that Artificial Intelligence and Technology can be harnessed in the pursuit of our common shared understanding, interests and security, and should be a tool to create job opportunities for the Arab youth and refurbish Arab economies and address issues such as maritime security, drugs and narcotics trafficking and climate change, which eventually brings more social stability in our region.

As to the role of NATO in the Middle East region, Masa’deh said that the member states of NATO, with their influence and power, should be engaged in order to facilitate a peaceful solution for the conflict in the Middle East. However he does not foresee an imminent role for NATO as an organization at this point but expects that if the circumstances change NATO could have a buffer role between the concerned parties maintaining peace and security in the future.