Washington (IINA) - Jordanian King Abdullah held here on Wednesday 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, Petra reported.
The meeting, attended by Crown Prince Al-Hussein, 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.
“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 King said.
The help that we have gotten from you, 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, 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.
From his side, President Obama said, "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 the king 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 have 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. Therefore, 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.
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. Jordanian King 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 the King 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.
SM/IINA
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