I am optimistic on Iraq’s future — King

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah has said that he is optimistic on Iraq.

He told CNN in a recent interview that the Daesh-captured western town of Ramadi may have a bad day now but will see “a good day tomorrow”.  

“I am still optimistic on how the Iraqis and the coalition are working in Iraq,” he said, expressing hope that the operations in Iraq would be successful this year.

He said Jordan is cooperating with Iraq on that, saying that the victory of Iraq would result in opening the trade routes between Jordan and the eastern neighbour, a key trade partner and market for Jordanian goods.

“I am hoping that the trade route will be reopened in 2015,” he told John Defterios, CNN’s emerging markets editor, on May 21, ahead of the World Economic Forum’s meeting at the Dead Sea.

As for the challenges posed by the Syrian crisis, His Majesty said: “We are all hoping that there [will be] a political solution to that as quickly as possible. We have seen the visit of [US State] Secretary Kerry to Moscow. It would be very interesting to see how the international community works with the Russians and people in the region to find a political solution for Syria.

However, on the ground, Daesh, which he labelled as enemy number one, “is moving down from the north… of Syria, down towards Damascus”.

King Abdullah urged stakeholders to consider the fairly stable south Syria as an area to host refugees, especially since “we have 1.4 million refugees in Jordan, which is a tremendous burden for our country”.

“But there are also displaced Syrians across our border, fairly safe, fairly stable. And I believe that people should start looking at how we make that southern Syria area more conducive to a normal life. So, is there more local political stability, economic stability and how does the international community work with that?”

The first part of the interview was published on May 21, in which the King outlined the country’s future plans and ways to attract investments, especially in vital and promising sectors like renewable energy, transportation, ICT and education.