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American Morning
Jordan Sandwiched between Iraq and Israel
Aired November 19, 2002 - 08:15 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: There is one Arab nation firmly established and sandwiched in between Iraq to the east and Israel to the west. That's the country of Jordan.
Jane Arraf is on the streets of Amman, talking with leaders there and people there, too, who appear to be growing increasingly nervous with the possibility of war again being imminent.
To Jane now, good afternoon to you -- what are you hearing?
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Bill.
Well, as you mentioned, there is a nervousness here and it's because of what's happening next door, obviously. Now, Jordan has seen this all before and this time the feeling is it could be worse. This is really quite a small country, a U.S. ally, increasingly so in recent years, but still with a population that's overwhelmingly sympathetic to, if not the Iraqi leader, then the Iraqi people.
Now, we spoke with Jordan's information minister, who says of course he welcomes the return of the weapons inspectors and he hopes that Iraq will cooperate fully to avert a war for several reasons. Iraq's economic relationship with Jordan -- Jordan is heavily dependent on its neighbor. It gets all of its oil from there plus the theory that if a war does happen, it really could destabilize this country as well as other countries in the region.
Now, the newspapers today, some of the things they're reading are articles like this one in one of the main Jordanian newspapers, saying that this is a small opportunity to avert war, the inspections going on. The key word there is small. Not a lot of optimism here, some, but not a lot, and a lot of nervousness -- Bill.
HEMMER: Jane, we have seen Tariq Aziz head out of Baghdad and visit several Arab countries over the past two months running. Has he had much success in recruiting Arab support for the Iraqi cause?
ARRAF: One of the themes that he's been hammering home, which is being taken to heart in countries like this, is a warning, in effect, an Iraqi warning that if war does happen it won't just effect Iraq, it will effect countries like Jordan, countries in the Gulf. And that has really taken hold, particularly in the Gulf, where the sentiment is that if the Iraqi president goes at the hands of the United States, particularly, then what's to stop the U.S. from going into other countries?
Now, that may not make a lot of sense in the United States, but it's really a firmly held belief in this part of the world, that what the U.S. really wants is to get control of Arab oil. So Tariq Aziz's trip and the trip of other Iraqi officials have managed to plant that warning. But at the same time, these Arab allies of Iraq's have said to Iraq that they really can't help it unless it cooperates with the U.N. weapons inspectors. And that message has taken hold, as well -- Bill.
HEMMER: That's the view from Amman.
Thank you, Jane.
Jane Arraf reporting in Jordan.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 19, 2002 - 08:15 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: There is one Arab nation firmly established and sandwiched in between Iraq to the east and Israel to the west. That's the country of Jordan.
Jane Arraf is on the streets of Amman, talking with leaders there and people there, too, who appear to be growing increasingly nervous with the possibility of war again being imminent.
To Jane now, good afternoon to you -- what are you hearing?
JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Bill.
Well, as you mentioned, there is a nervousness here and it's because of what's happening next door, obviously. Now, Jordan has seen this all before and this time the feeling is it could be worse. This is really quite a small country, a U.S. ally, increasingly so in recent years, but still with a population that's overwhelmingly sympathetic to, if not the Iraqi leader, then the Iraqi people.
Now, we spoke with Jordan's information minister, who says of course he welcomes the return of the weapons inspectors and he hopes that Iraq will cooperate fully to avert a war for several reasons. Iraq's economic relationship with Jordan -- Jordan is heavily dependent on its neighbor. It gets all of its oil from there plus the theory that if a war does happen, it really could destabilize this country as well as other countries in the region.
Now, the newspapers today, some of the things they're reading are articles like this one in one of the main Jordanian newspapers, saying that this is a small opportunity to avert war, the inspections going on. The key word there is small. Not a lot of optimism here, some, but not a lot, and a lot of nervousness -- Bill.
HEMMER: Jane, we have seen Tariq Aziz head out of Baghdad and visit several Arab countries over the past two months running. Has he had much success in recruiting Arab support for the Iraqi cause?
ARRAF: One of the themes that he's been hammering home, which is being taken to heart in countries like this, is a warning, in effect, an Iraqi warning that if war does happen it won't just effect Iraq, it will effect countries like Jordan, countries in the Gulf. And that has really taken hold, particularly in the Gulf, where the sentiment is that if the Iraqi president goes at the hands of the United States, particularly, then what's to stop the U.S. from going into other countries?
Now, that may not make a lot of sense in the United States, but it's really a firmly held belief in this part of the world, that what the U.S. really wants is to get control of Arab oil. So Tariq Aziz's trip and the trip of other Iraqi officials have managed to plant that warning. But at the same time, these Arab allies of Iraq's have said to Iraq that they really can't help it unless it cooperates with the U.N. weapons inspectors. And that message has taken hold, as well -- Bill.
HEMMER: That's the view from Amman.
Thank you, Jane.
Jane Arraf reporting in Jordan.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
