October 29, 2001	Monday	Shaba'an 11, 1422

AMMAN, Oct 28: Jordan’s King Abdullah II warned on Sunday that an attack on an Arab country as part of the US-led campaign against terrorism would amount to a “great catastrophe”.

The 39-year-old monarch also said the church massacre in Pakistan underscored world concern that “Osama bin Ladens” around the world are trying to pit East against West.

Arabs and Muslims are not responsible for the deadly September 11 attacks on the United States, Abdullah, in an exclusive interview at his private home of Beit al-Baraka in the western suburbs of Amman, repeatedly stressed.

“I strongly believe there should not be any military action against any Arab country,” Abdullah said.

“We have explained to the coalition the great catastrophe if an Arab country is hit,” the king said, asked about the possibility of an Arab country, notably Iraq, being attacked.

He branded the September 11 anti-US terror attacks for which bin Laden is the prime suspect as a “heinous crime against all of us” that was carried out by “a few unrepresentative extremists who have nothing to do with” Islam.

“Those terrorists pose a double threat to us as Arabs and Muslims: the threat of inflicting suffering on people and the threat of tarnishing the images of a great religion and civilisation,” he said.

“Our concern is that the Osama bin Ladens of this world would like to make this a struggle between East and West, between the West and Islam,” he said, condemning Sunday’s church attack in Pakistan that killed at least 16 Christians.

“So that when we see attacks on mosques or attacks on churches it is really following what they want,” the king said.

“And we have to be very careful as Muslims and Christians in the international community not to fall into that trap,” the king said.

“We need to continue to further promote dialogue and understanding between the coalition and our brethren Arab countries,” he said.

The king said Jordan had lost “more Jordanian diplomats to acts of terror than any other country in the region” and saw the coalition as “a fight against a common threat, for the right of all peoples, wherever they are, to live in peace and security.”

“September 11 ushered in a new era,” the king said, adding that the Arabs were at the forefront of international efforts to fight terrorism, a plight faced by several capitals in the region.

“International terrorism will not be tolerated and Arab countries, like countries across the world, are now engaged in a global struggle against terrorism, a struggle that will be multi-dimensional and will be fought on different political, economic, military and intelligence fronts,” he said.

He also reiterated that as a result of the September 11 attacks there is more urgency, particularly in the United States, to solve the Palestinian problem by pooling efforts towards the creation of a Palestinian state.—AFP