King holds summit meeting with Obama

His Majesty King Abdullah II, on Wednesday, held a summit meeting with U.S. President, Barack Obama, that dealt with global efforts to fight terrorism and extremism in the Middle East and the world, the latest developments in Syria and efforts to revive peacemaking between the Palestinians and Israelis. 

The meeting, attended by HRH Crown Prince Al-Hussein bin Abdullah, also discussed ways to cement the strategic relationship between Jordan and the United States. 

In joint remarks following the meeting, the two leaders said they are keen to maintain coordination and consultation between the two countries on challenges facing the world. 

Following are the remarks of His Majesty the King:

Mr President, thank you very much for really your kind words. I am delighted to be back here in Washington.

And I just wanted to echo the kind words that the President has just said. We are so grateful for the support that you have shown me and our people, our country. Truly, no country other than the United States has given us so much support; whether it is to the economy, so that we can take the challenge of refugees to our country; but also to the military and security, so that we can defend our borders, but also secure our people.

The help that we have gotten from you, Mr President, from your administration and from the Congress and the people of the United States is something that is very difficult to express in any words and we are very, very grateful for that.

I am also here to thank the President for his tremendous leadership in dealing with the threat of ISIS/Daesh. Specifically when it comes to the challenges in Syria, we are working together as part of the international team to try to find, as the President said, a political solution. Yet, at the same time, the threat of Daesh is one that has taken some of our consultations today in how do we defeat Daesh as quickly as possible, not only in Syria but also to reach out to our Iraqi brethren to make sure that they too are part of this struggle against extremism.

I do think that we are moving in the right direction. The coordination with the United States is exceptional. And, again, I would like to thank you Sir, and all your institutions, for working very closely with us in this respect.

So, I am actually leaving Washington very optimistic about the level of support from the United States, the leadership that the President has shown on the issue of Syria and hopefully, the discussions between yourselves and the Russians will move the process in the right direction. But also looking at the larger picture, when looking at the challenge of ISIS and their franchises around the world, I think that the future looks much better with the leadership of the United States.

We did, again as the President said, speak about bringing hope to the Israelis and Palestinians. These are obviously challenging times, but hope is something that we have to bring to both sides. And we did talk about this issue to see what we could do in 2016 to bring the momentum into the right direction.

But I actually am here just to thank the President and the American people for all the support they have given for our country and how truly grateful I am for your leadership, Sir, for your support to me and my people.

Following are the remarks of US President Barack Obama:

"Well, it’s wonderful to be back with one of our most stalwart allies in the world, King Abdullah of Jordan, and his delegation. We’ve had, as usual, excellent consultation about the enormous challenges that His Majesty and the Jordanian people face in a very difficult time, in a very difficult neighbourhood. 

We spent the bulk of our discussion around the situation in Syria, Iraq, and our joint efforts to combat ISIL. Jordan has been an outstanding partner in that process. As I’ve said publicly, we have seen progress in pushing back against ISIL in territory both in Iraq and now in some portions of Syria. But a lot of work remains to be done. And so the coordination between our nations and other coalition partners is absolutely critical. And Jordan has made enormous contribution. Jordan is a country that punches above its weight when it comes to the fight against ISIL. 

With respect to Syria, I briefed him on the conversations that I’ve had with President Putin and the cessation of hostilities agreement that has been put in place. We are very cautious about raising expectations on this. The situation on ground is difficult, but we have seen modest progress over the course of the last week or so with respect to humanitarian access to populations that are threatened.

If, over the next several weeks, we can see some lessening of the violence that’s been wracking that country, then that provides us a basis to build a longer-term ceasefire both in the north and the south, and allows us to move forward on the political transition that ultimately is going to be necessary to bring an end to the civil war in Syria.

It also would allow us, then, to focus all of our efforts all the parties in the entire world community, including Russia in going after ISIL, something that right now they are not doing and are not focused on. 

We talked about refugees and the burden that Jordan, as well as other countries in the region, are bearing. The Jordanian people have been extraordinarily generous in accommodating the hundreds of thousands of Syrians who have been fleeing the fighting, and the United States is the leading contributor to humanitarian efforts to house and provide basic care to these refugees. But the numbers continue to grow. And I expressed to His Majesty our commitment to make sure that as they continue to be open to helping people in need, they will have a strong partner in the United States and we will make sure that our money is where our mouth is in terms of looking after these refugee populations. 

In addition, I’m proud of the both economic and military assistance that we have consistently provided to Jordan. Considering everything that Jordan is doing essentially for the region and the world, and the strains that this has placed their economy under, I think it’s important for them to know that the United States is there every step of the way. 

Finally, we discussed the situation in Israel and the West Bank, and the increasing tensions that exist between Israelis and Palestinians there. His Majesty has been a critical component of reducing some of the immediate sources of tension around the Temple Mount and visits there. But we continue to agree that it’s important for us to provide both sides a sense of possibility and hope, and not simply despair. That’s hard to do. And so we have explored ideas in terms of how we can make progress. But His Majesty has continued to be a voice of reason and moderation and tolerance for all the parties concerned in this issue. And we very much appreciate his partnership in the process. 

So we’re lucky to have a friend like Jordan. Hopefully, they feel that the United States has been with them during these very difficult times. The good news is, is that, whether it’s fighting ISIL, reducing the violence in Syria and trying to get that country on a track for political reconciliation, trying to bring Israelis and Palestinians to recognize their shared interest in peace on all these issues, our countries have been in sync. And that will continue as long as I’m President and long after I’m gone, thanks to the leadership of His Majesty."

Responding to a question on Jordanian-U.S. cooperation, His Majesty the King said: "Well, as I said early on, the relationship and coordination with the United States is outstanding. And one of the reasons we’re here is to make sure that we’re taking the coordination between our two countries to the next level. As to what is happening in Syria, obviously the political process is I think the priority of the moment. And we’re all supportive of what John Kerry and Sergey Lavrov are doing as part of a political process, but at the same time making sure that the second part of that dimension is the fight against Daesh. And I think that both elements are complementary to each other.

Specifically, obviously to the southern part of Syria, it is whether or not, based in connection to what the Americans and the Russians have been doing, can we get a cease-fire going into the south alongside our border as part of a building block of the political process that helps move the politics of this issue forward between the regime and opposition forces. Because at the end of the day, Daesh is the enemy for all of us. And we’ll have to see how things are moving between the two foreign ministers. But again, we’ve got some good initiatives moving in that, and we’re just keeping our fingers crossed that the political process continues to move in the right direction."

The talks also touched on the latest developments in Iraq and Libya and ways to restart peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis.

Source: Petra