Prince Hassan calls for inter-regional cooperation in Arab world

AMMAN — Arab countries should work together to address the pressing security problems facing the peoples of the region, according to HRH Prince Hassan.

“We are living in times where one conflict gives rise to the next without a pause,” the prince said in an address at the NATO Defence College in Rome on Monday. 

“And even as these conflicts result in the hyper-Balkanisation of the entire region, we cannot attempt to find solutions through bilateral or binary agreements,” he added. 

The prince was invited to the NATO Defence College to address a conference organised as part of the Senior Course 125, according to a statement sent to The Jordan Times on Wednesday. 

Participants in the course include military professionals — lieutenant colonels and colonels — and their equivalent ranks in the diplomatic services.

The prince spoke of the importance of involving all partners of the region when it comes to addressing some of its most “intractable conflicts”, such as the one between Israel and Palestine, and the escalating violence in Iraq and Syria.

“These conflicts threaten the human security of people across the region — and can only be solved by involving all of the key players in the region, be it Turkey, Iran or Israel,” he said.

The prince has “long advocated that the West Asia and North Africa region has to leverage its entire carrying capacity to develop solutions for problems related to water, energy and the human environment — difficulties that have been exacerbated in recent years by increased migration, lack of urban infrastructure and water scarcity”, the statement said. 

Prince Hassan “believes that only by furthering human security — as opposed to focusing merely on military security — and by focusing on the human dimension of every conflict, will we be able to bring about lasting peace in the region”.

“I’d like to ask everyone that even as we navigate these troubled waters, we look to human dignity as our Pole Star, and make it our centre of gravity even as we continue this battle for security on our forward defensive lines,” he said.