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US image in ME ‘never lower’, says Jordan

SHUNEH: Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Moasher said on Sunday that the US image in the Middle East “has never been lower” and must be redressed by credible action to resolve the Arab-Israeli crisis and the situation in Iraq.

“There is no question that the image of the United States in the Middle East has never been lower,” Moasher told CNN on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) on the Jordanian shores of the Dead Sea.

“We, as allies of the United States, as friends of the United States in Jordan don’t want to see this happening,” he said when asked if Washington’s Middle East policy was in “deep trouble”.

“The United States is a very important player, whether it is on the Arab-Israeli front or on Iraq,” Moasher said, after a joint news conference with US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

“It is very important for the United States to look very carefully at what is happening in the region and to take whatever corrective steps it needs to take, in order to reverse the situation,” he said.

Moasher said that Powell should report back to US President George W Bush and tell him “that the number one issue remains the Arab-Israeli conflict in this region”. “People feel very emotional about it. People feel the policies of the United States need to take a more active role in it,” he said.

“And on Iraq also people need to feel that the United States is moving along a very credible political process that would hand Iraq back to the Iraqis.” The US-led coalition is due to transfer sovereignty back to Iraqis one June 30, but Bush has said US troops will remain in the country after that date.

Powell told the WEF that Washington was committed to a Palestinian state and a democratic new Iraq. —AFP

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