Page 8 - ARUBA TODAY

A8 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 28 March 2017

Jordan FM: Arab world ‘realizes urgency’ of tackling crises

K. LAUB King Abdullah II. The cer-
M. DARAGHMEH emony included troops
Associated Press on camel back, a vintage
DEAD SEA, Jordan (AP) — cream-colored Mercedes
Arab leaders “realize the convertible and cannon
urgency” of tackling long- salutes.
running regional crises, The two monarchs are to
from war to high unem- sign several bilateral agree-
ployment, Jordan’s foreign ments during Salman’s visit.
minister said Monday after Saudi Arabia is one of Jor-
chairing a meeting of his dan’s main financial back-
counterparts from the re- ers, and Jordan desperate-
gion. ly needs more foreign aid
Ayman Safadi said he and amid a continuous eco-
his colleagues endorsed nomic downturn, including
more than a dozen policy rising unemployment and
resolutions, including sev- public debt.
eral on the Israeli-Pales- This year’s summit is being
tinian conflict, that are to held six years after the Arab
be adopted Wednesday Spring uprisings that raised
by heads of state of the initial hopes for greater
22-member Arab League freedoms in a region still
at their annual gathering. largely ruled by autocrats.
The summit, hosted this Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, center, is greeted by Jordan’s King Abdullah II and others, on the tar- Instead, the upheavals
year by Jordan, comes mac at a military airport on the outskirts of the capital, Amman. Monday, March 27, 2017. Salman led to violent conflict and
at a time when fester- is in Jordan to attend the annual Arab Summit, to be held on Wednesday. Issues on the summit crackdowns in many parts
ing crises have “led to an agenda include conflicts in Syria, Libya and Yemen. Saudi Arabia is an important financial backer of the region.
erosion in the level of trust of Jordan. Safadi, the foreign minister,
that people have in the (AP Photo/ Raad Adayleh) said he expects the sum-
regional Arab order, in the mit to signal a readiness for
Arab League,” Safadi told year-old civil war in Syria. Assad hasn’t been invited Saudi Arabia, led by King change.
reporters. “So there is a re- The league suspended Syr- to a summit since then, Salman, supports the Syri- “I think this summit has
alization of that, of the diffi- ia in 2011, several months and Arab League member an opposition, while Egypt, confirmed and will con-
culty.” Despite calls for uni- after a popular uprising states disagree on his po- fearful of Islamic militants firm ... that Arab leaders,
ty, Arab League member against President Bashar litical fate, if any, if fighting among the rebels’ ranks, the Arab world, need to
states remain divided on Assad that quickly turned ends one day. has pushed for a political work together and realize
key issues, including the six- into a brutal civil war. Regional power house solution that might keep the urgency of working to-
Assad in power. Saudi- gether” on providing solu-
Egyptian relations have tions that will offer hope to
been tense in recent people, he said.
months. David Schenker, an analyst
The Saudi monarch arrived at the Washington Institute
in Jordan on Monday to for Near East Policy think
a lavish airport welcome, tank, said fear of chaos
descending from his air- now appears to override
craft by escalator before demands for political or
being greeted by Jordan’s economic reform. q
UK: Northern Ireland must act

soon to save self-government

DUBLIN (AP) — Britain says tant government, the cen-
Northern Ireland is at dire tral achievement of North-
risk of losing self-govern- ern Ireland’s 1998 peace
ment if rival parties fail with- accord.
in weeks to resolve key dif- The main Irish nationalist
ferences. party, Sinn Fein, triggered
Secretary of State James power-sharing’s collapse
Brokenshire says local lead- in January and withdrew
ers still have “a few short again from talks Sunday
weeks to resolve matters.” citing multiple grievances
Otherwise, with the British Protestants
he warns, Britain will be of the Democratic Unionist
obliged to assume full con- Party.
trol of the territory’s unrav- Brokenshire says Belfast civil
eled government. servants will assume essen-
Brokenshire spoke Monday tial government responsi-
just minutes after the formal bilities this week, but the
expiry of a legal deadline government limbo cannot
to revive a Catholic-Protes- continue indefinitely.q