King Abdullah — who has been a steady ally of the West and the UK and US in particular — has stepped in to the Syrian crisis by saying that for a "political solution in Syria, Moscow is key."
Jordan has accepted 1.4 million refugees from Syria and other nations and the refugees now make up a fifth of the country's population.
Only a fraction of Syrian refugees have made it to Europe. The bulk are in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan @TheEconomist pic.twitter.com/HaCX0t1obe
— Rod McLeod (@rm867) November 6, 2015
Speaking to Euronews, King Abdullah, underscored that the threat of radical militants, including the Islamic State (ISIL) terrorist group, is a major concern for both Europe and Russia:
"I think the issue of refugees arriving on the shores of Europe has been a wake-up call for all of us that we have to have better coordination.
"If we take one step back, what we have been talking about up until this point is, obviously, about this global war against terror. Europe is suffering from foreign fighters.
"This is an issue that we have been calling for, for the past two years. This is, in my view, a global war, a third world war by other means. Getting our act together in Syria allows us a building block to be able to deal with this from a holistic approach. So we have to come together and help each other on this issue. And as we talk about the Russian involvement in this, there is an opportunity."
The European refugee crisis deepened when German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared an open doors policy to Syrian refugees, causing a mass movement of Syrians from refugee camps in the Middle East, making an often perilous journey across Europe, either by sea — where many have died — or by land, causing chaos in Europe.
"If the Europeans are dealing with a major concern of foreign fighters, that is doubly so for Russia. They have a major problem with foreign fighters also, so they need to deal with the threat of ISIL themselves."
On September 30, Russia launched airstrikes against ISIL positions in Syria at the request of country’s President Bashar al-Assad. Meanwhile, a US-led international coalition has been conducting airstrikes against ISIL in Syria since September 2014. The US-led operation has not been authorized by the UN and coordinated with the Syrian government.
King Abdullah's intervention will be seen as significant, in that Jordan has very close ties with the West — particularly in military co-operation. His wife, Queen Noor has a country house in Berkshire, west of London.
