Interview: King Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on Middle East Issues

so your majesty we're in New York and so I'm going to open our very special conversation with my prized possession a first edition of your father's memoir and read a passage to you in honor of the fact that we are in New York the setting is 60 years ago when then a 24-year old King Hussein flies to New York while he's already had seven years on the throne mind you flies to New York to attend his first meetings at the United Nations and he has this to say it's a good feeling to be in New York it's my favorite city in the world The New Yorker The New Yorker he writes is a very special person compounded of so many races so vitally proud of his great city but what fascinated me most was the friendly curator curiosity behind the New Yorkers unceremonious greeting to me hiya King so your majesty hiya King congratulations thank you Robert thank you I'm truly delighted to be here and it's an honor for me to see Ashley so many old friends in this room and I hope that I continue to live up to a lot of faith that was put in to me by many of the people in this room 20 years ago I'm honored and I'm deeply touched to be part of this evening thank you so your majesty we met in among twenty years ago just after you ascended the throne so let me begin by noting we're both a bit grayer other than that other than that how have you changed over these 20 years what lessons about leadership about government do you think you've acquired through on-the-job training well I hope a bit of wisdom over the past 20 years but there's I stopped three or four years saying it can't get any worse unfortunately but I think that the consistency that I learned from My Father is we're both sort of glass half-full kind of guys and with all the challenges that we have in our part of the world you always have to look to the positive you always have to reach out and do the right thing and I think there's no time more pressing than than today the old adage that for for evil to succeed is for good men and women to do nothing so as challenging and as confusing as our part of the world looks I am optimistic we will move to the future and and I get that inspiration not only from my family but from the young men and women in Jordan that have that aspiration to make life better and Jordan is just a a small part of the Middle East that I think youth want to move forward live together and make a better world for themselves and that's what gives us I think the energy to continue so I we rarely hear an optimistic note and so I'm delighted that you would say that look the video that we showed a moment ago opened with the rise of Isis what you in the Middle East call - an arabic acronym we've just had a male major milestone the death of the founder of Isis following the destruction of the territorial Caliphate the the semi state read real state but the semi state but the problem of what Isis is and what it represents certainly hasn't disappeared how would you describe the challenge of radicalism and extremism in this era today - Jordan specifically and more generally well I have exchanges with different organizations around the world and we have something called the akima process where we've worked together to bring different countries together to be able to deal with this long term challenge we've created the Boko Haram task force Shabaab the Balkans counter-radicalization for Europe and the Asian one we've had a lot of success in the past year a lot of us coming together to do acabou tech between intelligence agencies and and tech companies because I think this is the long-term challenge that we have and in the past couple of meetings I think to be very brutally honest when I talk to my audiences I I say you still don't know who the enemy is and that's extremely frustrating the intelligence services do the military do but to realize that the challenge that we have is a global challenge so Isis has been defeated maybe in Syria and Iraq people can say but it's not being destroyed and actually in the past couple months we've seen re-emergence of them close to our borders and in western Iran but it is a global issue so why does a country like Bulgaria send zero foreign fighters to Syria and Iraq and if you understand the extremism in our religion but tobago a small island in your backyard sent a hundred and seventy five until politicians understand who the enemy is it's two steps forward and one step back this is a generation issue but it's I think frustrating that you know what the enemy is but the majority of leaders and countries don't or they don't want to know so help this room understand again I I want to be very careful because we're in a somewhat large audience but this is the nobody will actually say word I've been been there before that that's not true by the way so the the challenge that we have inside of a religion is is those that believe sort of the outlaws of what we call of Islam - are those that are believed that all of us everyone in this room are heretics and unless we believe in what they say they have the right to put us all to the sword there is a battleground inside of Islam which is being fought no Larry by Muslims who understand their faith but with other religions around around world to be able to get rid of this scourge so that what we call the tech fury jihadist is going to be a challenge for all of us you have them all over the world and because of the internet and social media we're going to have a problem wherever we are in a world and being able to deal with this so unless we call the enemy and those that support them for what they are it's gonna take a long time for us to be able to to deal with this I'm being a bit diplomatic here I mean he's not again me saying I'm not saying as much as I should but ask him after after this all right let me ask you a different question your majesty eight years ago protests swept across the Arab world except perhaps for Tunisia didn't work out so great for many in the Middle East now turn on a television protest sweeping across the Middle East again Algeria Iraq Lebanon extending all the way to Iran what's going on is this different than the last time well again we've got older remember that the Arab Spring what what the West Coast Arab Spring we call it the abbé autumn in our part of the world was led by youth that were extremely frustrated and wanted opportunities I hope we look back at that point in history and and it is it obviously a very defining road for us in in Islamic and Arabic history and I think we'll look back on it and say that was a crossroad that we needed to cross and there very many analogies are obviously with with with the Europe during the the inter Christian challenges that they had four or five hundred years ago and I think that's where the crossroads we are today this new set of issues that we're saying you can't compartmental we have to compartmentalize it a bit because certain countries is because of frustration from the people because the leaders don't understand the other countries is because it's regional politics being played by Arab and non-arab actors so one thing one can say looking at both waves the monarchies seem to have avoided this Jordan Saudi Arabia Morocco what's the secret recipe yeah I think you should understand that I know so I monarchies in in in in the way I was brought up by by his late Majesty and he was brought up by his father and his father is we're there for all of society you know we are fortunately unfortunately in many parts of the third-world tribally based when you have a small monarchy like we have in Jordan and like you have in in Morocco where we're the balancer for everybody in society whether you're Muslim or Christian or Jewish whether you're tribal or you're a farmer we are the ones that make sure that it that that everybody is protected and everybody supported and I think that's what's helped the monarchies be stable doing a very difficult time for our region ok let's turn to the theme of your book I mentioned earlier your father's book the theme of your book our last best chance a story of war and peace the major focus is on the arab-israeli peace process which is regrettably dormant at the moment so I want to ask you first about the peace process and then in a moment about your own peace with Israel what is the formula for raising the peace process out of its dormancy what role would you hope the United States would play toward that effort well anybody who's in the international community says that we can have peace between Israelis and Palestinians without the support of America is doesn't know our region and and the role that America plays we all need America to bring both sides together I think there's quite a few of us in this room that believe that the only way to move forward is a two-state solution because the alternative is worse for all of us because then it becomes an Israel looking inwards which none of us can afford we then have an immediate challenge of equal rights which again is something that we can't deal with unfortunately III were in course mode as you will know that Israelis have gone through a series of elections we may be seeing another three months of elections that it's not going to be good for anybody so as a result were all in pose mode and and we haven't been able to get people back around the table talking to each other the Deranian Israeli relationship is at an all-time low part of it is because of Israeli domestic issues we are hoping that Israel will decide its future whether it's in the next several weeks or in the next three months and then it is very important for all of us and I'm saying our friends here in the United States to refocus our energies on on bringing all of us back to the table and looking at the glass half full if we continue this way and even a pause of three months whenever we're not talking to each other stupidity reigns supreme unfortunately our part of the world and are you hopeful that that the two-state solution as you just described it is not dead so I think for the first time and in in in the 20 years that I've had to deal with this and having watched my father go through this that's a very very important question have we gone beyond the point of no return what is the alternative and I think that good men and women can bring the momentum back in the right direction but every when I say in the book the last best chance is because every time we we usually a year it's going to be much more complicated that much more difficult for the palestinian-israeli state to get to go to to go forward together and Israel's future is being part of the Middle East the problem with that is that's never going to happen 100% unless we solve the Palestinian problem so there's a lot of people in our part of the world that could say behind closed doors do whatever you want but in reality it is a sensitive or it's an emotional issue that unless we can we can solve the Israeli politician will never have the full integration that all of us deserve in our part of the world your own your country's own peace with Israel you said it's at an all-time low now clearly from the implication of your remarks is that resuscitating the broader peace process would have a major impact on this is it I mean we factor the problems that we've had with Israel is is bilateral part of it is internal politics I understand that but not at the expense of something that my father and the late Prime Minister Rabine fought so hard to achieve as a symbol of hope and opportunity for Israelis Palestinians Jordanians and others so when we are not able to talk about Red Dead when we're not allowed to talk about trade when we're not allowed to fix regional I mean border issues when the Israelis build an airport that is actually on our border and infecting our flight passages so they can't fly the airport but they're not allow us to build our own one in the Jordan Valley this has been going on for two or three years it makes no sense to me why the the the the the heroic situation that that both Prime Minister Roby and my father found themselves in and again we have to remind people that the Israeli Jordanian piece was done without the Americans it was Israelis and Jordan sitting together because they had the confidence in each other to create this peace 25 years from now later were in this position where you know if they're looking down on us I think they're very very sad on how we've let everybody down now I hope that whatever happens in Israel over the next two or three months we can get back to talking to each other on simple issues that we haven't been able to talk about for the past two years and just you know I appreciate the applause but but it's I mean we are all saddened that that we are where we are today and I think it's fair to say that is what motivates the the the joy once saw in the pictures in Amman when at the ending of the the agreement about the the two parcels of land with the Israel and I think has been the frustration of not moving the ball in the right direction that had such a reaction in Jordan when the land was was handed over and that's indicative of I think that the frustration that we have that is going to be unhealthy for all of us so again we will see what happens in the next couple of months we've got to get that that narrative moving back towards towards the light Your Majesty I know that you have a plane to catch so let me ask one sort of American oriented question it's not about this or that candidate it's really about all of them there is a confluence on both right and left calling on America to come home from the Middle East we've seen this among many Democratic candidates it was the language of our past Democratic president and it's the language of our incumbent Republican president so this isn't a partisan partisan comment what do you hear when you hear American leaders say I want to get out of the Middle East what message is that sending and what message do you want to send back as Americans who say so for from an American perspective or a British perspective or a French perspective or a German perspective or other troops that that our NATO base that have been in our part of the world absolutely justified to say that you know your young men and women had been in harm's way for many many years many families have suffered the ultimate sacrifice and so I am absent be sympathetic with the desire for people to bring their troops back the issue from a historic point of view and from from our military background unless you solve the problem you're going to come back and have to revisit it at a tremendous cost to everybody and so again the United States is in a unique position of being the most powerful capable country in the world and with that comes a more responsibility to help stabilize the world so from a an ex-military point of view and this is my personal opinion sometimes when you move out of a campaign before it's over you're only gonna be back tomorrow to try and fix it again having lost all that ground so again it's it's an American decision nobody can fault Americans for wanting their that their loved ones back but they'll be back unless we solve it and that's the problem and again I think what's changed over the past couple years I know from our country we we fought in both Syria and Iraq alongside all of you well I think we're back in Afghanistan we were in northern Syria now when our teams had to be pulled out recently we're going to be committing again to North Africa this is a global fight that we're all in this for the next decade and I always said to myself that I hope that the military part of it is the short term the long term is going to be changing people's minds and part of that is as I alluded to the the internet and and and how people are going to be recruited and understanding who the enemy is so I know sometimes when we have these type of discussions everybody's going to be leaving tonight feeling very depressed and I and I don't want that to be what you remember this evening just know that there is a younger generation of people in our part of the world they just want to get on with their lives whether you're Israeli or Jordanian or Palestinian or Yemeni or Iran Iranian we want to be able to find jobs we want to settle down with a family we want to be able to move on it's the politicians that make life miserable for everybody so me being one of them by the way so sorry so at present company excluded Nita so what I'm saying is is is when you look at the glass half-full people just want to move on with their lives and we forget that too often if you ask Israelis and Palestinians if we can bring you a piece they're going to vote for that and I think that's that's the problem sometimes with politicians is believe in your people because they do want to have the right thing but give them that opportunity and I'm not talking just about our part of the world in the Middle East this is all over the place so so give the young people your love and and your consideration because they will make the world better if we give them a chance ladies and gentlemen please join me in thanking His Majesty King Abdullah the second of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan thank you very much as I see him talking you

Channel: WashingtonInstitute

Views: 45,828

Keywords: Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Peace Process, ISIS, King Abdullah II, Syria, Islamic Extremism, Arab Spring, Tunisia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Middle East, Netanyahu, Gantz, Liberman, Israel Election, Terrorism

Id: LR4HyFOzcGg

Length: 21min 5sec (1265 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 26 2019