Jordanian news agency and White House in conflict over what Bush told King Abdullah,

The Associated Press 10/1/01 6:29 PM

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) -- The official Jordanian news agency reported Monday that King Abdullah II won a promise from President Bush not to strike any Arab country during retaliation for the Sept.11 terrorist attacks.

The White House immediately challenged the report.

"It is wrong. What the president told the king is those who harbor terrorists will meet the same fate as the terrorists," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

A Jordanian official in Washington said the king had been misquoted by the Petra news agency.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said King Abdullah "advised the Bush administration not to target an Arab country, particularly without evidence. That's different from the Bush administration promising not to target" certain countries, he said.

The Jordanian official said Bush told the king the "immediate targets were bin Laden," the official said.

The Petra report quoted the king as telling recruits in an elite royal brigade:

"I had a promise from the American president that there will be no strike on Iraq or any other Arab country."

The state-run Jordan Television showed clips of Abdullah -- wearing a military uniform and a beret -- addressing the soldiers. The king is the supreme commander of the armed forces.

There has been speculation in the Arab world that the United States and its allies would strike at Iraq during its war on terrorism, aggravating an already tense Middle East situation and launching a broader conflict.

The king said moderate Arab nations feel a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, under U.S. sponsorship, would serve as a brake on terrorism worldwide, removing a key cause taken up by those groups.

"I told him that we need a speedy resolution to the Palestinian issue and a quick one, too, for the issue of Jerusalem," said Abdullah.

Like other Arabs, the king favors the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with its capital in traditionally Arab east Jerusalem. Israel seized that part of the city in the 1967 Middle East war.

-- Anonymous, October 01, 2001

Answers

Sometimes, like now, I feel as though we should just go in there and mow them all down.

Must be the mood I'm in, which isn't good.

-- Anonymous, October 01, 2001