Prince Zeid Bin Ra'ad & Princess Sarah Zeid

lil Monkey · Oct 4, 2006

Salomé said:
Jordan called their ambassador in Qatar,as Qatar won't support the Jordanian candidate for the UNSG post.

I am not understunding the attitude of Jordanian officials,I think this is a vote,and every country is free to support the candidate who convicts it,and there's no obligation from Qatar to support the Jordanian candidate,if it was so,every vote would create diplomatic crisis as now?

even though I am a jordanian an would have loved Prince zeid to get the position, but it's a matter of freedom,Qatar didn't want to vote then fine,what is all this about? They have the right to vote to whomever they want,I was shocked from the Gov's reaction, its a bit over. :ermm:

Salomé · Oct 4, 2006

Thank you Lil Monkey,I like your partiality even if you are jordanian.

This crisis shows once again that Prince Zeid was not a good choice for this position,everytime that somebody would disagree with him or with the Jordanian Royal family and governoment,this would be taken with big sensitiveness?I do not think that people are looking for that in such as organisation.

I do think that the Jordanain Gov headed by King Abdallah should learn a lot about diplomacy,democracy and fredom of opinions, before trying to be representative in such as organisation.

houri · Oct 5, 2006

Salomé said:
Apparently not,this is only the jordanian version and jordanian papers' version,Qatar was clear before candidature of prince Zeid about the candidate they are supporting,say they never talkek about supporting Zeid's candidature any time,to be accused by changing their mind.

Article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061003/ap_on_re_mi_ea/jordan_qatar_un;_ylt=ArHqGnf58BKCIA3ibLxgfLILewgF;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--

In Monday's poll, .....
According to the results, Ban received 14 votes in favor and a white "no opinion" ballot cast by one of the 10 rotating members of the council. Every other candidate received at least one no vote from a veto-wielding member.
Zeid had only two votes in favor and eight against, with one veto.
After the vote on Monday, Qatar's U.N. Ambassador Nassir Al-Nassir confirmed that his nation did not vote for Prince Zeid. He did not specify whether he cast a no vote or expressed no opinion, but said Zeid had entered the race after Qatar had already promised to vote for someone else.
"My foreign minister told them it's late for Jordan to come now with a candidate," al-Nassir said. "We already, a year ago, we gave our commitment to one of the candidates and we cannot play with this."

First of all I agree that Qater has the right to choos what ever they want , I just give a review to what I read in the newspeapers to what Jordan upset about , it seems until now that every one blame the other , this case show that no prince should be in that sensitive position .

this two articles for the same newspeaper explains why Jordan is upset !!

http://www.aawsat.com/details.asp?section=3&article=385777&issue=10172

http://www.aawsat.com/details.asp?section=3&article=385948&issue=10173

houri · Oct 5, 2006

Another article explain that Qatar told Jordan that they will not support prince Zaid and in the same article Jordan saying Qatar broke the Arabs agreement to support prince Zaid !!!

http://www.elaph.com/ElaphWeb/Politics/2006/10/181569.htm

Salomé · Oct 5, 2006

houri said:
Another article explain that Qatar told Jordan that they will not support prince Zaid and in the same article Jordan saying Qatar broke the Arabs agreement to support prince Zaid !!!

http://www.elaph.com/ElaphWeb/Politics/2006/10/181569.htm

Broke the Arabs agreement?This is always the Jordanian Gov's version!
Every arab country has his interests,and Jordan's interests are not all Arabs' interests,and this is the problem of the Royal Jordanian candidate.

As far as I know,Arabs didn't gather or meet and choose Prince Zeid to suggest or to represent them for this position,Jordan came,and presented their candidate end of September,without any previous warning!

And Qatar,even though the lonely actual arab country voting in UN,said they were already supporting and other candidate from one year,and they won't change it,and this is their right!.And by the way,nobody find anywhere,that Qatar said anytime that they would support Prince Zaid,and if somebody talked and decided for them without asking their opinion,so this is not their probleme.

shrifia · Oct 5, 2006

I totally agree with you Salomé.
and I belive that the problem between Quatar and Jordan is more than just a vote in UN. Quatar try always to get some attention by his Other than concept Politics but this time it were her right to vote anyone she chose, and Jordan in my opinion Exaggerated alot :wacko:

what's Arabs agreement they talk about every arab country are free to do what she want and not changes his plans because other country had other Projects??!! and anywaye they didn't chose the right candidate.Zeid isn't the right choice.
I really hope that some day a muslim can be in this position but someone else then royal.

shelley · Oct 5, 2006

I am neither an Arab nor a Muslim, but would also have welcomed a new SG who would have been one or both of the former, for the sake of diversity if nothing else. However, this sort of endeavor is not easily achieved. If as we hear, the Jordanian candidate only entered the arena formally last month, it was way too late. This sort of thing needs years of lobbying and funding. With my respects to our Arab members ( and I know and love the Arab world) I also wonder if en masse the Arab world is sufficently sophisticated to let an Arab SG succeed. If he had to occasionally say or do something which did not follow the mainstream of Arab popular opinion, he might have found himself in trouble back home, where people still say ( and mean it) , ( and please forgive my bad translation ) that 'I and my brother against my cousin, but my cousin and I against the stranger'.

lil Monkey · Oct 5, 2006

shelley said:
'I and my brother against my cousin, but my cousin and I against the stranger'.

nice way you thought of it

I agree with you, This is how the case is nowadays!

shelley · Oct 5, 2006

There are those whom I have talked to who know of my partiality to Prince Hassan, who maintain that this gentleman might have stood a better chance than Prince Zeid, even though he is also royal, as he is generally much better known both in the Arab world and internationally, and is more experienced. I personally do not think that he would want to be restricted by holding down a formal position as now he is a free agent, which he must find quite liberating after over thirty five years of public life.

Salomé · Oct 7, 2006

Prince Zeid Jordanian Envoy Withdraws From UN Leader Race 6 Oct 2006 06:10 GMT

... Jordanian Envoy Withdraws From UN Leader Race UNITED ... touched off a dispute between Jordan and Qatar, wrote a letter to the Security Council.

source: http://www.einnews.com/qatar/newsfeed-qatar-jordan

shelley said:
There are those whom I have talked to who know of my partiality to Prince Hassan, who maintain that this gentleman might have stood a better chance than Prince Zeid, even though he is also royal, as he is generally much better known both in the Arab world and internationally, and is more experienced. I personally do not think that he would want to be restricted by holding down a formal position as now he is a free agent, which he must find quite liberating after over thirty five years of public life.

I do not discuss P.Hassan's skills,experince and loyality for Jordan,but I don't think either that he would be a better choice than Prince Zeid,for this position,not just because he's a royal and the uncle of an actual head of state,but for the other reason that he had showen some interests in Iraq which I pointed before,and also because of his big loyality for the Hashemite throne,there will be confusion between personal interests and the interests of the others in case of conflicts.

I also wonder if en masse the Arab world is sufficently sophisticated to let an Arab SG succeed

Why not,they already agreed to support an arab candidate before ,the Egyptian Boutros Gali to become a UNSG,and so it was.

The problem is not that arabs will/won't support and arab or muslim,because of his he has the same culture,but it's that the candidate should be a good and diplomatic choice between all countries if he would represent them,and not imposed in the last minute.

Frothy · Dec 16, 2006

HRH Prince Zeid has been appointed Jordan's ambassador to the United States, a promotion from being Ambassador to the UN, a lesser role. Prince Zeid and Princess Sarah will now live in Washington.

Apologies for not having a link, but it is true.

Next Star · Jan 29, 2007

Prince Zeid and all the other candiates should be looked at by who's the most experience and qualified person to officially succeed Kofi Annan as the U.N Seceretary and not becuase what part of the region of the world they are from.

Veram98 · Feb 27, 2007

Frothy said:
HRH Prince Zeid has been appointed Jordan's ambassador to the United States, a promotion from being Ambassador to the UN, a lesser role. Prince Zeid and Princess Sarah will now live in Washington.

Apologies for not having a link, but it is true.

You are right:

Prince Zeid Bin Ra'ad Begins New Post as Jordan's Ambassador to the United States

Embassy of Jordan (Washington, D.C.) - Press Release