Click to play videoThe man charged with the balancing act between the US and the Islamic world, Jordan's King Abdullah, travelled to India for a visit to boost bilateral ties. Ahead of the visit, he spoke to CNN-IBN's Foriegn Affairs Editor Surya Gangadharan about the wars that literally encircle his kingdom.
Surya Gangadharan: Where do you see the Iraq war going? Do you see a kind of a winding up happening next year?
King Abdullah: No, unfortuantely I think Iraq has a long road to go. I put Iraq in the third position of countries where things are going completely out of control.
Obviously this is relative because these positions are changing between what we are seeing in Iraq everyday.
I know that the politicians have tried their best to keep things calm and bring people together. Iraq and the West Bank are hotspots are going to be critical to the future of this whole region.
And if we don't deal with these places progressively and inclusively then in 2007 we are going to be in for a very, very hard year - if not the hardest year this region has seen in decades, maybe even centuries.
Surya Gangadharan: Jordon is one of the very few countries that has had fairly comfortable relations with Israelis. So what do they tell you about how they are handling their situation and what do you tell them?
King Abdullah: Well, we use this relationship to get our points across on the Israeli and Palestinian issue so as to smooth out misunderstandings between both the groups.
This summer, the relationship was used to get aid and bring down the blockade in to Lebanon as soon as possible.
As of now, I am waiting for an answer from the Israelis on how far they are willing to commit on the peace process, knowing how much is at stake.
I believe that the overwhelming majority of the Israeli public does want peace and they do want to be included into the region.
I think that their vision is not to the borders of Jordon or Syria or Egypt. I think their future is Morocco on the Atlantic and Amman on the Indian Ocean. I think that is the future that Israelis would want.
To get their, we first need to give a future to the Palestinians. But today I think they are at that crossroad and they have to make up their mind. Do they want fortresses around them or do they want to be included in the neighbourhood and without knowing that answer 100 per cent, we don't know how to go forward.
Surya Gangadharan: Do you believe that the change of guard in Washington - in terms of the Democrats now dominating the Congress - will help your agenda?
King Abdullah: If you are talking about the Palestine issue, then I don't think the changes make that much of a difference. And I think that the US President is very committed to putting whatever pressure he can to move the Israeli-Palestinian process forward.
We now just need to know from the Israelis and the Palestinians whether we have enough to move forward. I hope we do because if we don't then we are going to be in for some serious problems in the very near future.
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