Bush and Jordan’s King Meet, End Rift

President Bush welcomed Jordan’s King Hussein to the White House on Thursday for their first meeting since shortly after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and signaled an end to the estrangement stemming from the Persian Gulf War.

“We know there were difficulties,” Bush said, adding, “He is my friend and I welcome him back.”

The meeting occurred as the United States pressed Jordan and other key U.N. members to hold firm on sanctions against Iraq. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been attempting to persuade Jordan’s king, who stood with him during the Gulf War, to help lobby for an easing of the United Nations’ sanctions against Iraq. The sanctions prevent Iraq from legally selling its oil on the international market, something it always depended on for foreign currency.

But illicit transport routes through the porous Iraqi-Jordanian border are believed to be in use to smuggle Iraqi production abroad, and Bush “raised concerns” about this to pressure Hussein to close down such smuggling, an Administration official said.

The rapprochement with Hussein reflects Jordan’s politically strategic position in the region. Regardless of the diplomatic tightrope Jordan walks, occasionally following a path independent of U.S. policy, it is in a position too crucial for the United States to shun it for long. Similarly, because Jordan is surrounded by often-hostile neighbors, it is forced to depend on Washington for both military and financial support.

The meeting was considered a private visit at Hussein’s request, rather than a working visit or an even higher-level state visit. This made it a low-key occasion, in which Bush and Hussein met for about an hour in the Oval Office, then had lunch in the White House residence. But behind this informal approach was a tension reflecting Hussein’s uncertainty about the reception he would receive in Washington after the falling out because of the Gulf War.

When Hussein visited with Bush in Kennebunkport, Me., in August, 1990, he pleaded for understanding of the position he found himself in, living side-by-side with Iraq.

“He was a nervous wreck at that point,” according to one participant in that meeting. Bush, this source said, told Hussein in that meeting: “You’re either with us or against us.”

Hussein left Kennebunkport, and it quickly became apparent that, even as he sought to portray himself on a neutral path, he was bending toward Iraq, a course that led to the estrangement, which did not get patched up until Thursday.

In a written statement issued after the meeting, White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said that Bush and the king see eye-to-eye on forcing Iraq to adhere to the U.N. sanctions.

Fitzwater also said that Hussein and Bush, who were joined by Secretary of State James A. Baker III and National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, will “continue to consult closely on questions relating to Iraq and the Gulf War aftermath.” In one of the key areas with which Hussein must wrestle routinely--a failing economy--Bush offered unspecified U.S. aid for Jordan, “directly and via international financial institutions,” Fitzwater said.