A Conversation with King Abdullah of Jordan

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A Talk With Jordan's King

6/20/08: Newsweek-Washington Post's Lally Weymouth interviews King Abdullah of Jordan about the Arab-Israeli peace process and how he views Iran.

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I saw your statement to [the Israeli newspaper] Haaretz saying, "Everybody's going for nuclear programs."

I had said that before in the United States, [but] when I said it to Haaretz, it was breaking news -- Jordan is going nuclear.

People were thinking, if Iran goes nuclear, aren't other countries in the region going to follow suit?

This is what I said in answer to a question, "What happens if Iran goes nuclear?" I said, in our part of the world there's nuclear ambiguity. Nobody's too sure what Israel has, nobody's too sure what Iran is doing. I said even Jordan is thinking of looking at nuclear power. We would like to see ourselves as a prime example of how to be transparent. I think one of the main ways we are actually going to do it is through the private sector. That way nobody can have any concerns as to what Jordan is up to regarding nuclear energy.

The United States seems to be selling Saudi Arabia the components to manufacture nuclear power.

They've signed an agreement. Four years ago, President Bush actually encouraged us to pursue nuclear energy. The U.S. signed an agreement to this effect [with Saudi Arabia], but Jordan will be much quicker than other countries to get nuclear energy.

Reportedly, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are building nuclear reactors.

They don't have the crunch that we do, so for us, the pace will be much quicker. We'll probably be the first in our part of the world to actually go through the private sector to get nuclear energy.