Foreign interventions in the Middle-East must end: Jordan

In a cryptic message directed primarily at the US, Jordan’s foreign minister Ayman Al Safadi on Thursday billed foreign interferences in the affairs of countries of the Middle-East as a main challenge that has kept the politically volatile region from realizing its full potential.

“If we talk about regional peace and stability, let me identify the sources of threat that are destabilising the region,” Safadi said during his lecture, titled The Middle East at Crossroads: The Challenges of Achieving Peace and Security, in New Delhi at the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA).

“Part of it (our problems) are also rooted in foreign intervention. The threat of occupation has been responsible for causing great hardship in the region,” Safadi added. The Jordanian minister was on a two day visit to India that concluded on Thursday.

Safadi held meetings with Minister of State (MoS) External Affairs MJ Akbar and Minister of Commerce and Industry Suresh Prabhu during his two-day visit, according to officials.

“We cannot continue to be a region where foreign powers continue to impose their own agendas. We want relations based on mutual respect with all the countries of the region,” Safadi said.

“And it is only natural that when some countries try to impose their own agenda that you see a reaction from the Arab world,” he added.

The accompanying Jordanian officials echoed Safadi’s remarks on foreign intervention being a major challenge facing the resource-rich region, adding that the benchmark was the same even for judging Iran, which has been at loggerheads with predominantly Sunni Saudi Arabia and most of the other member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

“We do not accept any intervention on part of Iran either. We do not want Iran to be part of the Syrian civil war,” they said, not wishing to be named.

“But Iran is part of the region. We also want excellent relations with Iran,” the Jordanian officials added.

The remarks by the visiting Jordan minister assume significance as they come amid the ongoing push by the US to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. A vote in the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on Dec 21 witnessed 128 countries rejecting President Donald Trump’s unilateral proposal, with nine countries supporting America’s move. Thirty-five countries abstained from voting.

Jordan has been leading a push to mobilise the Arab world and other countries against President Trump’s decision. There have also been calls in the Jordanian media urging countries to withdraw their envoys from Washington in a show of protest over America’s decision.

India drew praise from Palestine and other Arab countries for voting against America and Israel, despite Modi government’s blossoming relations with Tel Aviv.

“India voted on the side of legality and justice,” Safadi said during his address.

He remarked that the peace would continue to remain a distant prospect in the Middle-East, which has been witness to several instances of inter-country tensions escalating into military conflicts over the last five decades, until the Palestine-Israel dispute was solved.

“The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the root cause of instability in the region. Its resolution on the basis that guarantees an independent, sovereign Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital on June 4, 1967, lines is the key to peace,” Safadi said.

In his lecture, Jordan’s foreign minister named terrorism, lack of opportunity, weak governance, conflicts and civil wars as other major obstacles that have been plaguing the region.

“Nearly 70 per cent of the region’s population is under the age of thirty. If we do not create jobs, do not create opportunity, if we can’t provide them with education, that is a threat to the peace and stability of the region,” Safadi said.