Tel Aviv, April 19: Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak sought play down fears of an impending new Middle East war, telling a radio interviewer Monday that Israel had no intentions of starting a fresh round of fighting.
Speaking on army radio, Barak was asked to respond to comments last week by Jordan’s King Abdullah II, in which the monarch warned there was a high risk of conflict if Israeli-Palestinian peace talks remained stalled.
“I believe and think that there is no reason for war to break out,” Barak said. “Certainly we have no intention of starting something like that, and I hope there will be no deterioration from other directions.”
In an April 15 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Abdullah was quoted as saying that, “If we hit the summer and there’s no active (peace) process, there’s a very good chance for conflict.”
Jordan became the second Arab state after Egypt to conclude a peace treaty with Israel in 1994.
—Agencies