July 12, 2002	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1, 1423

NEW YORK, July 11: American military planners are considering using bases in in Jordan to stage air and commando operations against Iraq in the event the United States decides to attack Iraq, the New York Times said quoting senior defence officials on Wednesday.

However, the paper said that Jordan has not yet been consulted specifically about the possible use of its bases, and Jordanian officials have criticized such a plan.

Jordan’s foreign minister, Marwan J. Muasher, told the Times : “Our public position is the same as our private position. Jordan will not be used as a launching pad, and we do not have any US forces in Jordan.”

The Times said that the American military planning document prepared at the Central Command calls for air — land-and sea-based forces to attack Iraq from three directions, but the details of which countries might be involved are just coming to light.

Using Jordanian bases would enable the Pentagon to attack Iraq from the West, as well as from the north via Turkey and the south via several Persian Gulf states. Such an arrangement would also introduce American forces between Iraq and Israel to help detect, track and destroy Scud missiles that Baghdad might shoot at Israeli targets, as it did during the Persian Gulf war in 1991, the Defence department officials told the paper.

A final military plan for attacking Iraq has not yet been prepared, but ”every country in the region, from Turkey to Jordan to the gulf states, was being considered when you’re talking about mounting an operation,” a senior defence official told the paper.

President Bush has discussed with King Abdullah of Jordan the administration’s goal of toppling President Saddam Hussein of Iraq and the political landscape without Mr. Hussein, senior officials told the paper.

The reason for Jordan’s anxiety is clear. King Abdullah, who presides over a poor country in need of aid and good will from the United States, is trying to be a friend to Washington.

He has met with President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney at the White House four times in the past two years, most recently on May 8.

The king is to meet privately with Mr. Bush here later this month.

At the same time, most of Jordan’s population is of Palestinian descent, and Palestinians have been ardent supporters of President Hussein. Jordanian sensitivities regarding Iraq have a long history.

The NYT said that American military planners, operating without the political filters that their superiors would impose if an attack were imminent, say Jordan’s role could be similar to that of Pakistan in the war in Afghanistan.

Pakistan has allowed American Special Operations forces and search and rescue crews to work out of bases in the country, but neither nation publicly acknowledges the arrangement the paper said.