Jordan's king told visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday that Washington must "actively push" for reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. King Abdullah II also warned that violence would escalate if no tangible solution was found to the lingering conflict. Rice's stop was part of a weeklong tour of the region. The king said that Iraqi reconciliation would fail if Sunni Iraqis were not engaged in their country's decision making. "Any political process that doesn't ensure the participation of all segments of Iraqi society will fail and will lead to more violence," Abdullah told Rice in a closed-door meeting in Amman, according to a statement by his press office. "As a key component of the Iraqi social fabric, the Iraqi Sunni community must be included as partners in building Iraq's future," said the king, a top U.S. ally in the Middle East.
With other U.S. allies such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Jordan is concerned that the growing Shiite Muslim influence stretching from Iran through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, will help the hard-line Tehran regime dominate the Middle East. That, the allies fear, will give rise to more extremism, jeopardize a peace settlement and threaten their own states.