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Interview: Queen Noor of Jordan Discusses the Humanitarian Issues of a War in Iraq
Weekend Edition Saturday: March 8, 2003
 A Conversation with Queen Noor
SCOTT SIMON, host:
The entire Persian Gulf region is in a holding pattern, still hoping for some peaceful resolution of the current standoff. This period has helped to further damage the all ready delicate economies throughout the area. Perhaps nowhere can the strains of this conflict be better illustrated than in Jordan, which has a huge Palestinian population, shares a northern border with Iraq, its chief oil supplier, and enjoys strong trade and diplomatic ties with the United States. Her majesty Queen Noor of Jordan joins us. Queen Noor has what can be described as a singular insight into the region. She is an American by birth and a Jordanian--of course, the widow the late King Hussein of Jordan. Queen Noor has lent her voice to many humanitarian concerns that stem from a possible war with Iraq and this week she's in the United States to raise those concerns. Queen Noor joins us in our studios.
Thanks very much for being with us.
Queen NOOR (Jordan): Oh, it's a great pleasure. Thank you.
SIMON: Do you feel that war has gone from being imminent to inevitable?
Queen NOOR: I hope and pray, as do so many others, not only in our region but around the world, that we will find a peaceful resolution to this conflict and appreciate the active role and voice of the United Nations in the course of this debate.
SIMON: Can you help us understand what this period has meant to Jordan? As we noted, Iraq is Jordan's number-one trading partner. I believe the United States is the second, if I'm not mistaken. Has there been some economic damage already?
Queen NOOR: There has been continual economic stress since the first Gulf War for a range of reasons in Jordan and throughout the region not only because of economic sanctions and the fact that Iraq was a primary trading partner but also because the region has been in a recession and because of the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict which has promoted increasing instability and an image of the overall region as a place that is violent, unpredictable and insecure, whereas Jordan, thank God, has for decades been an oasis of stability and peace in the region and a country that has tried to bring together all forces into dialogue and discussion and debate in order to promote a peaceful resolution of the range of conflicts that seem to surround us.
SIMON: Queen Noor, what do you see as the humanitarian concerns that could begin to take place if war begins?
Queen NOOR: There are estimates that are almost one million internally displaced people in Iraq today, and that has occurred over the last many years, that war might add another 900,000 internally displaced people within Iraq and another 1.5 million refugees outside the country seeking shelter. That means that possibly up to three and a half million people will be dislocated by war, and of those refugees, of refugees in the world, about 75 percent are women and children. And just as troops and armaments are being positioned in the region, it's absolutely critical that that be balanced by humanitarian resources as well.
SIMON: When you talk about there might be an additional 1.5 million refugees outside of Iraq, help us put faces on those numbers, too, if you could.
Queen NOOR: Well, I remember from the Gulf War in 1990-'91 the numbers of Iraqis that fled Iraq. Now again these people would be fleeing bombs and destruction of infrastructure. Right now 90 percent of the country depend to some extent on the UN oil-for-food program. Sixty percent depend totally on it, and with a disruption of that and water and sanitation and basic health services, there will be an immediate threat of starvation, of disease, and that's why international support is absolutely vital, that humanitarian resources are increased dramatically by those countries not only who are engaging in the conflict but by their supporting the UN agencies as well to that play such an important role.
SIMON: Can this occasionally be done right? I'm thinking of some of the desperate refugee camps that we saw right outside of Kosovo at the time of the war, and I must say over the year that proceeded, I was impressed by the number of Kosovars who were able to return to their homes and pick up, in fact, remarkably better lives.
Queen NOOR: Well, two million have returned to Afghanistan just in the recent period, far more than anyone expected to return to the country, which both presented challenges but also indicated a hope and confidence and commitment to return and rebuild their countries. In Kosovo, in East Timor, in the Balkans in general, we have seen how the UN administration, while it's uneven and it's enormously challenging, it takes time, can begin to make enormous progress in providing a safety net, providing services and enabling local populations to begin to transcend the impact of war and the tragedy that could have permanently embittered and divided societies, but, in fact, we're beginning to see the rebuilding of multiethnic societies that can sustain themselves. We have to hope that that kind of international framework can also help in the Middle East in promoting multiethnic societies that are able to live in peace.
SIMON: I understand you're in a delicate position when you speak out on certain issues, being a queen and all, but it would be wrong if I didn't ask you this question while we have the chance. You've met Saddam Hussein?
Queen NOOR: Literally to shake his hand on a couple of occasions and that's it.
SIMON: So you don't know him as well as Dan Rather does?
Queen NOOR: Not at all.
SIMON: All right.
Queen NOOR: I have always tried to focus and my husband did, too, not on the personalities but on the issues and on the people most affected by policies whether in our region or anywhere else.
SIMON: Can you help us understand any general concept you think a lot of Jordanians might have of Iraq under Saddam Hussein, Iraqis or--in general, perhaps?
Queen NOOR: Well, yes, I can in that the people of Iraq have inherited a culture that historically has been vibrant and dynamic and one of the richest capitals of culture and commerce throughout the ages, and they are a well-educated and dynamic and a capable people. And people in Jordan hope and pray and long to partner with the people of Iraq, as do people throughout the region, to realize their full potential. And we are neighbors, we are family in the region. We live so close together and we have so much in common.
SIMON: Is there some anti-American feeling in Jordan, for a lack of a better phrase for it?
Queen NOOR: I think you find in the region and throughout the world a distinction increasingly being made between American values, the America represented by the civil rights movement, the abolition of slavery, the values of freedom and equity and tolerance and often government policies that don't seem to reflect all those values, for example, in the Middle East particularly with respect to the Arab-Israeli conflict and the rights of the Palestinians. I think that is where the US has an enormous responsibility to focus more political will and to apply all of its means and resources to address a problem that without resolution will continue to sicken the entire area.
SIMON: Do you think a series of democracies can be built in the Middle East?
Queen NOOR: I do. I think that democratic values are very consistent with our cultural values, with our religious values. I was looking today at definition of International Women's Day which was established to signify the rights of women to justice and equality, including rights to education, to jobs, to vote and to hold public office, and I smiled to myself because it was in the 7th century, this Islam granted those rights to women and Islam is the religion of the majority of people in our region. And true Islam, in fact, provides for a society that is responsible, that is equitable, that is peaceful, that is tolerant, pluralistic and, God willing, a vibrant and natural partner for countries in the West, countries throughout the world in building peace.
SIMON: Well, Queen Noor, thank you.
Queen NOOR: Thank you.
SIMON: I hope we speak with you again.
Queen NOOR: Thank you very much.
SIMON: Queen Noor of Jordan in our studios.
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