THE Jordanian Prime Minister, Mr Abdel Karim Kabariti, said yesterday it was "encouraging that the Foreign Minister, Mr Spring, had undertaken a mission to the Middle East.
Mr Kabariti, who had an unscheduled 12 hour stay in Ireland because of aircraft trouble, said he had met Mr Spring previously and was most impressed by him. "Ireland, during its presidency of the EU, is capable of playing a special role in the Middle East peace process," according to Mr Kabariti, a former foreign minister of his country.
He said Ireland's attitude had always been very sympathetic, very positive and very forwardlooking in securing peace in the Middle East". He said he hoped that Mr Spring's visit "will help make it easier for both sides to implement the Oslo accords".
The prime minister had been flying home to Amman from the peace talks in Washington. About 500 miles off the Irish coast the Royal Jordanian Airlines Tri Star Jet, flying direct from New York to Amman yesterday morning was forced to shut down one of its engines. After sending out an emergency alert, it landed at Shannon on two engines with 51 passengers and a crew of 11 on board. Engineers found that a gearbox in the port side engine had become defective.
Mr Kabariti and his party had planned to fly Aer Lingus from Shannon to London to get a connection to Amman, but the Irish aircraft was also delayed with mechanical trouble. After waiting three hours in the airport VIP room, the prime minister changed his mind and went to nearby Dromoland Castle for a seven hour rest.
Mr Kabariti was unshaken by the events. "It was my third such emergency incident."
He disagreed that the Washington, talks attended by King Hussein were unsuccessful. "The result was not as we would have liked, but had it not been for President Clinton's efforts, it would have been very difficult for the Palestinians and the Israelis to come together."
The Jordanian passengers were preparing to fly out from Shannon last night on a relief aircraft diverted from Paris.