Rice Interrupts Her Israel Trip To Visit Jordan
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AMMAN, Jordan – Interrupting her role in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations over the Gaza border, Secretary of State Rice met with King Abdullah yesterday to relay her condolences for the triple bombings on November 9 and to lay a wreath at a banquet hall at the Radisson SAS Hotel, where a suicide bomber struck last Wednesday.
The visit from America’s top diplomat comes as stories from Baghdad allege that one of the suicide bombers who hit the Hyatt Hotel here, Safaa Mohammed Ali, may have been detained in Iraq by American forces in 2004 but was released. Yesterday, a statement from the military said a man by the same name was detained after an American assault on Fallujah in November of last year but was released when he was determined not to be a threat.
“A review of the circumstances of his capture by the unit determined there was no compelling evidence that he was a threat to the security of Iraq and he was therefore released,” a statement yesterday from American command said.
The visit from Ms. Rice yesterday and from President Clinton and Senator Clinton ton Sunday underscores the outpouring of international sympathy for what many here are now calling Jordan’s 9/11. Not only have rallies emerged throughout the city to show solidarity against the terrorists, but the kingdom has launched a new war on the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
“There is no justification for the wanton killing of innocents, and we stand in solidarity with the people of Jordan [and] the people around the world who have suffered similar tragedies and we will stand firm,” Ms. Rice said yesterday after laying a wreath outside the hotel. Jordan’s official news agency last night reported that she praised the performance of Jordan’s security services, which on Sunday apprehended a female fourth suicide bomber from Wednesday’s attacks who fled the scene after her explosive belt did not detonate.
As evidence mounts that the perpetrators of the attacks were from Mr. al-Zarqawi’s organization, Iran’s foreign ministry said it believes the Israelis may have been behind the triple bombings. Yesterday Agence France-Presse quoted the foreign ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, as saying, “The explosions in Jordan are a suspicious matter. Most probably the Zionist regime was behind them.”
The statement is in keeping with Iran’s new posture.
Last month, President Ahmadinejad said Israel should be “wiped off the map.”
Ms. Rice cut short her trip to Israel where early reports suggest she is close to brokering a deal between Prime Minister Sharon and the Palestinian Arab president, Mahmoud Abbas, to open the border between Egypt and Gaza known as the Rafah Crossing.
Mr. Sharon, who defied his party this summer to cede the territory to the Palestinian Authority, has resisted American pressure to open the border crossing, fearing it will again be used to provide illicit weapons to Palestinian Arab terrorists. Mr. Abbas, on the other hand, has demanded the border be opened noting that the free flow of goods and people are necessary for the rehabilitation of Gaza’s dormant economy.
Yesterday, Mr. Abbas said the opening of the border was necessary to make sure Gaza did not become a “prison.” In a press conference with Ms. Rice he said, “We are about to reach an agreement on the matter.” He also said he did not expect an Israeli presence at the border. Ms. Rice for her part agreed at least in principle with Mr. Abbas. Echoing her speech on Sunday night, she said, “It is very important for ordinary Palestinian people in their daily lives, whether it is the farmer or the university student or the restaurant owner, that there be freedom of movement established between Gaza and the West Bank and also that we ease issues of movement in the West Bank.”
Ms. Rice suspended a trip to South Korea to continue negotiations in Israel today.
[Yesterday in Israel, according to the Associated Press, Senator Clinton visited Jerusalem’s Western Wall, slipping a personal note between the stones before heading to a memorial service for assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Later, Mrs. Clinton toured the Jerusalem station of the Magen David Adom rescue service. Magen David Adom officials presented Mrs. Clinton with a personalized field officer’s vest and implored her to hang it in the Oval Office one day. Mrs. Clinton smiled but did not respond to the suggestion.
The AP also reported that Mrs. Clinton also met the parents of a rescue service volunteer killed three years ago while doing reserve duty in the Israeli army. The parents of the volunteer, Yochai Porat, presented Mrs. Clinton with a framed picture of the former first lady and their son, whom she met just two weeks before he was killed. Mrs. Clinton also met Amir Peretz, the new leader the Labor Party.]