Luxembourg, 14/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - During the course of the Association Council between the European Union and Jordan on Tuesday in Luxembourg, the President of the EU Council, Franco Frattini and the Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marwan Muashar, raised a number of international issues, notably the situation in Iraq and the Middle East, as well as the reform process begun by Jordan and its relations with the EU.
During the press conference concluding the Association Council, Franco Frattini indicated that he and Mr Muashar shared the same point of view on the situation in Iraq: the need to hand over the government of the country to the Iraqi people as soon as possible. Asked abut the new draft resolution by the UN on Iraq, Mr Frattini was cautiously optimistic. "The readiness of the USA to introduce elements as the best way for defining a transition deadline demonstrates that they understand that it is necessary to work together", he declared, adding, nevertheless, that the draft should be "studied further" and that they should not be excessively optimistic.
Conceding that it "would be better" that the second United Nations resolution on Iraq was adopted before the Donors Conference in Madrid on 23-24 October, Mr Frattini, nevertheless, affirmed that there was agreement among European Ministers on the fact that even without a second resolution, donors should make more effort. The Jordanian Minister wanted a second UN resolution to give "more of a role to the United Nations".
Mr Muashar thought that sending troops into Iraq from neighbouring countries "is not particularly useful" and that it would be better to train the Iraqi police and army (his government announced its commitment to train 30,000 Iraqi soldiers in Jordan.
On the situation in the Middle East, Mr Muashar underlined that "the colonisation and construction of a wall by Israel made the two states solution impossible". He added that the Quartet's road map "remains the only valid framework" for the Middle East but up to now was lacking a "follow-up mechanism to check commitments were really being met by the two parties on the ground" and that the Quartet should take charge of the follow-up role.
As well as international political issues, the two parties discussed: implementing the EU-Jordan association agreement, reforms by the Jordanian government at political levels (human rights and fundamental freedoms: the EU, while welcoming the progress made, calls on Jordan to make further efforts), economic and social, development of their trade relations, the fight against terrorism; Euro-Mediterranean partnership (Mr Frattini asked the Jordanian Minister for his contribution to the creation of a "Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for Intercultural Dialogue"; the EU Wider Europe initiative: the EU invited Jordan to work with it on an "action plan" to implement this new policy, regional cooperation.