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1994-05-02
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<text>
<title>
Jordanian Foreign Minister's Statement, Oct. 31, 1991
</title>
<article>
<hdr>
Foreign Policy Bulletin, November/December 1991
The Madrid Middle East Peace Conference, October 30-November 1,
1991. Jordanian Foreign Minister Kamel Abu Jaber, October 31.
</hdr>
<body>
<p> (Excerpt) Peace cannot, indeed must not, reflect the military
balance of the belligerents now. It should, essentially, reflect
the hope of a better future that will end, once and for all, our
living in the midst of conflicting tragedies. It should bring
us all in step with a new world that will shatter the shadows,
the misery and the fog that engulfs our lives. It was Albert
Einstein who said, "Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only
be achieved by understanding..."
</p>
<p> It should not be a peace at any price, but an honorable peace
with which we and future generations can live: a durable peace
which is the product of negotiations. It must be the outcome of
mutual understanding and accommodation between the parties to
the conflict without sacrificing rights or deviating from the
principles of international law.
</p>
<p> Jordan's position rests on the very simple yet direct
assumption that in the end nothing is true but the truth; that
a moral and just stand is ultimately more powerful than brute
force. Although the world, and the Israelis themselves, know and
are aware of our innocence of the crimes against the Jewish
people, Israel's indignant outrage has not induced a sense of
balanced justice. It has become our fate in Jordan to live
with, as well as to suffer, and to contain the powerful forces
of extremism. The Nazis and others unleashed the passions of
injured Zionism for which the Palestinians and Jordan have paid
the price.
</p>
<p> God only knows the price we continue to pay for the sins of
others. It has come to pass that our land, our culture, our
people, even our very souls, as well as everything we hold dear
and sacred, continue to be plundered and distorted to
accommodate new realities and manufactured facts, brutally
created on the ground.
</p>
<p> And so it is that we not only ask what to do, but also
welcome the present effort. The question is the more agonizing
as we in the Arab world, and in Jordan in particular,
contemplate our situation. In Jordan three times in four
decades, we had to make room for large waves of destitute and
bewildered refugees forced out of their lands and homes.
</p>
<p> We are aware, as are our people, that in the nature of things
a negotiated settlement does not represent total justice. Yet,
with our traditional Jordanian moderation, rational approach,
and consideration of our vision of the future, we have made
consensus and balance a cornerstone of our political thesis
since 1967. In the words of King Hussein, "Peace is essential to
us in leading a normal life...We have made it a symbol for a
better life for future generations...Peace has become a
national objective..."
</p>
<p> That is why we think the formula of land for peace rings more
meaningfully true than any other principle or slogan. The echo
of the drums of war reverberates in the heart and soul of the
region. Is it not time that we, now on the threshold of the 21st
century, bring peace to our peoples?
</p>
<p> Ladies and Gentlemen, Jordan enters this process from a
position of moral strength, secure in the knowledge that
reasonable men can reach reasonable solutions; that justice must
ultimately prevail; that peace is indeed the master of all
judgments, and its logic necessitates accommodation not
belligerency. Otherwise, we may truly become one-dimensional
with neither soul nor spirit, driven by the primeval instincts
of the political jungle, leading us to perish in perils of our
own making.
</p>
<p> We should shed the psychology of fear, get out of the shadow
and realize that states too, like people, sometimes commit
suicide because of their fear of life. More land is not more
security. Occupation is against every legal principle and the
shape it has taken in the Arab occupied territories contravenes
the United Nations Charter and the Fourth Geneva Convention. The
building of settlements and the expropriation of land are both
in clear contravention of the rules of international law.
</p>
<p> The justice that Jordan seeks requires resort to law--law
that governs the actions of men, freeing them to live secure in
a stable, ordered, and institutionalized universe. That alone
can assure the proper division of labor and resources, and that
alone can guarantee not only survival, but freedom and security.
The technology of war has far outdistanced our true appreciation
of its destructiveness and danger. Otherwise, how can we
continue to contemplate our security in terms of missiles,
nuclear, biological and chemical weapons? Our mission must
transcend the issues of mere survival to become the search for
a new future.
</p>
<p> That is why his majesty King Hussein, in his nationwide
speech of 12 October, 1991, solicited the help and support of
the international community in this process: "Our cause is not
only between us and Israel, but also between the world and
Israel...Between the supremacy of international law...and the
flouting of it...The whole world rejects what Israel's
leadership is saying because it contravenes international
legitimacy...Indeed, a relatively growing segment of Israelis
are not too far from this world view..." The King added that our
world today is "peace-oriented" and that the Arabs and the rest
of the world will come together in their mutual desire and
interests to find a peaceful solution.
</p>
<p> That is one of the bases of the Jordanian position: a search
for peace secure in the support of the entire Arab world, indeed
the whole world community and in particular the Palestinians.
We and the Palestinians have a just cause which must be
addressed and resolved with equity and fairness.
</p>
<p> Our second basis for entering this peace process is our
expectation that there will be no asymmetry or double standards.
</p>
<p> The third basis of the Jordanian approach is that our cause
and that of our Palestinian brethren is intricately linked by
ties of history, culture, religion, language, demography,
geography, as well as human suffering and national aspirations.
King Hussein said: "We would have preferred an independent
Palestinian delegation, though we have no objection to providing
an umbrella for our Palestinian brethren, since we are keenly
aware that both Jordanians and Palestinians are besieged as the
parties directly and adversely affected by the continuation of
the status quo of the Arab-Israeli conflict."
</p>
<p> Fourth, the peace we seek must be based on United Nations
Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. The objective is real
peace. We must emphasize that our understanding of Resolution
242 is that it is based on the principle of the inadmissability
of the acquisition of territory by war and the exchange of land
for peace. The deliberations preceding its adoption and in which
Jordan participated were based on that principle. Our position
is firmly based on United Nations resolutions and international
law. We are aware that Israel's creation was the result of
United Nations Resolution 181 of 29th November, 1947. It is in
accordance with the strength of these resolutions as well as the
general principles of international law that Jordan demands the
total withdrawal of Israeli forces from occupied Jordanian,
Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese lands.
</p>
<p> The three dimensions of the Jordanian position--the
Jordanian, Palestinian and regional--are founded on
international law. Resolution 242 is a valid international
instrument unanimously agreed upon by the international
community. It is binding on all member states of the United
Nations in accordance with Article 25 of the United Nations
Charter.
</p>
<p> Arab sovereignty must be restored in Arab Jerusalem. In the
context of peace, Jerusalem will represent the essence and