| Date: 07/08/2012 Time: 10:56:00 PM |
King Abdullah II, of Jordan, warned Tuesday that
lack of political solution to the Syrian crisis brought the situation in
Jordan's northern neighbor to the verge of abyss.
"I'm worried about the longer we take to find a political solution and the
more the chaos continues then we may be pushing Syria into the abyss,"
Jordan's state-run news agency Petra quoted the King as saying.
He made the remarks in an interview here with prominent US journalist
Charlie Rose parts of which were broadcast by CBS PBS and Bloomberg TV
channels.
"There's a reality on the ground that's catching us up, if it hasn't
already. The chemical weapons (are) something that scares everybody. What
scares most of us is the chemical weapons falling into rebel hands," the King
said.
Speaking on the Syrian refugee camps in northern Jordan, the King said: "As
of today, we roughly have 145,000 across the borders."
"That's a major spike over the past three months. We're averaging anywhere
between 300 to 1,000 people mainly coming over at night. We have 30,000
Syrians that we have treated in our medical facilities. We have 25,000
children that we've inoculated under the age of five.
"There are 8,000 students now going into our school system. So it is a
pressure on us. And, you know, the numbers look like they're increasing." The
refugees are going into camps and the international community is responding
with aid, King Abdullah II said.
"The international community has been fantastic," he went on.
"The King of Spain called me several days ago, so did the King of Morocco.
They're trying to provide assistance. We just got a message that the French
are sending a military field hospital to help build the refugee camps.
"So, the international community is responding tremendously to the northern
border," he noted.
Speaking on the peace process, King Abdullah II said that President Barack
Obama has "done as much as he could" to advance Israeli and Palestinian peace
efforts in the face of distracting international economic challenges.
He added that one of his goals this year was to keep Israeli and
Palestinian peace talks part of American politicians' dialogue during an
election year. |