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Jordanian King Abdullah II on Friday warned that the fight against militants from Islamic State (IS) is a “third world war”, as US President Barack Obama promised a sizable aid increase to Jordan.
Obama and the Jordanian King met at the White House on Friday, with Obama set to increase aid from $660 million to over $1 billion per year. The US President also promised that the US will provide Jordan a supplementary loan guarantee.
According to King Abdullah, Jordan, the US and other countries “had to combine our strategies” to combat the IS, saying that he believed it will be a “generational fight”.
“We really have to have a pan-regional approach to this issue. This is a Muslim problem. We need to take ownership of this. It’s clearly a fight between good and evil. I think this is a third world war by other means. The medium-term is the security aspect, but the long term is going to be the ideological one. There’s a lot of leaders around the Arab and Muslim world that have had enough, that want to come and say ‘look enough is enough’”, King Abdullah II told CBS television.
Obama also said that the increased support aims to boost “political and economic reforms that are taking place inside of Jordan”.
This will not only mean that “the people of Jordan prosper and be self-sufficient, but they can continue to provide an anchor for important efforts that enhance U.S. national security over the long term”, Obama said.
The US’ aid will be effective from 2015-2017.
King Abdullah II expressed gratitude for the assistance, which comes at a “difficult” time for the kingdom as it grapples with extremists and hosts a flood of Syrian refugees.
“This will have a tremendous impact on Jordanians at all levels. So from all of us, a very gracious thank you to you and your people for this very timely support for our country”, Abdullah II told Obama.
