King says Jordan amazes world for ability to survive refugee crisis so far

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah has said that Jordan’s ability to survive the Syrian refugee crises has earned the respect and admiration of regional and international players.

In an interview with NHK network’s anchorman Yoshio Arima on Wednesday, the first part of which was published later in the day, the King said: “People are still, I think, staggering that Jordan is still able to survive with a 21 per cent increase in 18 months.”

His Majesty said that even countries as economically strong as Japan will find it hard to survive such a crisis and the ensuing burden.

“Take it from a Japanese perspective, if you were in our shoes, how would you be able to do it with the strength of your country? These are the challenges that we are facing today,” he said in the interview, which was conducted on the sidelines of the Monarch’s working visit to Japan, which started Tuesday.

Praising Japan’s help in this regard, King Abdullah said the Asian donor “has been very, very supportive of Jordan. We have gotten, I think, up to date, almost $400 million in aid from Japan”, he told the network.

However, His Majesty noted that in this year, for example, the amount of foreign aid that has come to Jordan and to the
UNHCR only amounts to 29 per cent roughly of what is needed for this year. 

“The rest is going to be the burden that we have to find for ourselves.”

On the next possible measures the coalition against the Islamic State (IS) terror group might take to escalate the campaign, the King said that currently the coalition is dealing with air strikes against IS, but that “is never going to be the full solution, but on the ground as you are seeing in Syria and Iraq, the ability of how do you reach out to the locals; how do you reach out to the Syrian and Iraqi tribes, empowering them to fight back against [IS], this is the medium-term concept”.

However, King Abdullah pointed out that the US is not leading the coalition because it is a US problem.

“I am alluding to the fact that this is an Arab-Muslim issue, so this is actually in reality an Arab-Muslim coalition because this is our problem.”

The King said what is happening is a confrontation between moderation against extremism. “What I have been saying is that this is a fight inside of Islam, and this is an issue that Arabs and Muslims have to deal with together.”

King Abdullah warned against focusing on terrorism as problem confined to Syria and Iraq. 

He said: “Let’s not just focus on Syria and Iraq because the problem also is in Libya, there [are] problems in Yemen, Mali and Nigeria. It is a regional issue and could be a global issue, so you have got to concentrate on more than one place. This is why there has to be this global strategic alliance of good against evil.”

Regarding expectations from Japan in this regard, His Majesty said the discussions he was scheduled to hold with the Japanese government would cover this issue, adding: “You commit so much aid to support the development of countries throughout our whole region. You have a tremendous impact in doing so many good things in the Middle East and Africa that I think it is so important to Japan that forces of moderation and good are protected and supported.”