During the World Economic Forum he hosted at the Dead Sea over the weekend, Jordan’s King Abdullah II spoke with The Post’s Lally Weymouth. Excerpts:
Q. How do you see Egypt’s future?
A. I went to Egypt after visiting the U.S. in May. I had a message from the administration for General Tantawi. [Mohammed Hussein Tantawi is head of Egypt’s military ruling council.]
How did your visit to Egypt go?
With Tantawi — fantastic. We had a very good meeting.
It is astounding that Tantawi did not take President Obama’s call for hours the night the Israelis were trapped in their embassy in Egypt.
The feeling I got from the Egyptian leadership is that if they stick [their] necks out, they will just get lambasted like [former president Hosni] Mubarak did. So I think they are playing safe by just keeping their heads down, which I think . . . sometimes allows things to get out of control. . . . Tantawi thinks there is too much pressure on him.
From the streets?
No, from the West.
Do you and other leaders in this area believe you cannot rely on the U.S.?
I think everybody is wary of dealing with the West. . . . Looking at how quickly people turned their backs on Mubarak, I would say that most people are going to try and go their own way. I think there is going to be less coordination with the West and therefore a chance of more misunderstandings. Egypt is trying to develop its own way of moving forward.
And Jordan?
Two things make Jordan stand out. One is that we reached out to everybody and got a national dialogue committee. The other thing that made a major impact is that we have had demonstrations for the past 11 months but . . . nobody has been killed. It was a decision taken [from] Day One that we disarmed all our police. In other countries . . . their solution was to pull out their guns and shoot.
Do you think President Bashar al-Assad of Syria can last?
We have been very careful to keep all channels of communication open with the Syrians.
Does that mean you have talked to President Assad?
I spoke to Bashar al-Assad twice in the springtime. . . . Basically, they were not interested in listening to our advice. They basically told us that there are a bunch of thugs in Syria and they had everything under control. A couple of times I have felt that I should reach out to him, but I really don’t know what to say. I think he does have reform in his soul but I don’t think that type of regime allows for any potential reformist.
People are asking about an alternative to President Assad — can another Alawite or a Sunni overthrow him?
Nobody has an answer to Syria. . . . The regime seems to be quite strong. I think you are going to see continued violence for the time being.
In the West, you hear over and over that Assad’s days are numbered.
My view is when you use violence on your people, that never ends well. But anybody would be challenged to say if that’s [in] six months, six years or 16 years.
What is your assessment of Libya?
It took everybody by surprise. We were committed to the transitional council from Day One.
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