On Sunday, Jordan’s King Abdullah II said that his country had previously been attacked by Iranian-made drones, adding that they have many anxieties about Iran’s activities in the region.
In an interview with Fareed Zakaria from CNN, the King said: “Jordan always supports dialogue… but there are legitimate concerns in our part of the world about a lot of portfolios that the Americans are hopefully going to discuss with Iran.”
He said that the nuclear program distresses many, and the Tehran regime’s ballistic technology has improved intensely, adding that attacks on US bases in Iraq and cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia from Yemen are witnesses to that.
“In addition to that, increased cyberattacks on many of our countries, the fire fights on our borders have increased almost to the times when we were at the high end of Daesh/ISIS, and unfortunately, Jordan has been attacked by drones that have come out, that are Iranian signatures that we have had to deal with in the past year or so, and escalated,” he expressed.
On the Iranian nuclear talks in Vienna, the King stated: “I have a feeling that the American position and where the Iranian position is, is somewhat far apart,” adding that Jordan would like to address these regional concerns with the Iranians at those talks, and bridge the gap between them.
The King also called for a return to the negotiating table on the Palestine-Israel dispute to build on a two-state solution, stating: “I think we have seen not only a better understanding between ourselves and Tel Aviv, but the voices coming out of both Israel and Palestine illustrating the need to move forward and reset relations in the past couple of weeks.”
The Jordanian King is currently in the US on a two-week visit where he met with US President Joe Biden, becoming the first Middle East leader to visit the White House since the president was sworn in January.
