AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - Jordan rejects the use of force against Iraq and will not allow foreign troops to use its territory in an attack against its eastern neighbor and main trade partner, a Cabinet minister said Wednesday.
"Our position is well known and very clear," Information Minister Mohammad Affash Adwan told The Associated Press.
"We will not allow our land and our skies to be used as a launching pad for any foreign troops to mount an attack on Iraq. Jordan rejects the principle of interfering in the internal affairs of any brotherly Arab country under any justification," he said.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that U.S. military planners were considering using bases in Jordan to launch air and commando raids in the event of an attack on Iraq to oust President Saddam Hussein ( news - web sites) — a stated objective of the Bush administration.
"We are against any strike against Iraq and we believe that the Iraqi problem can only be resolved through dialogue between Iraq and the United Nations ( news - web sites)," Adwan added.
Jordan, as one of Iraq's neighbors, would logically be considered a staging ground for any attack on Iraq. President Bush ( news - web sites) vowed earlier this week to "use all the tools at our disposal" to remove Saddam.
Bush believes Saddam has the means and the motives to attack the United States with weapons of mass destruction and must be dealt with before he strikes.
No specific U.S. plans for deposing the Iraqi leader have been put forward and a military strike remains just one option. Other logical launching pads for an attack on Iraq beside Jordan are Kuwait and Qatar, where the U.S. military already has facilities, troops and hardware.
Adwan said King Abdullah II has been "doing his best" through continuous regional and international contacts to "prevent any military attack against" Iraq.
Abdullah returned Tuesday from talks with President Vladimir Putin ( news - web sites) in Russia, where Foreign Ministry Spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said his country was convinced that negotiations with Saddam was the only way to solve the crisis and repeated Russia's opposition to any military action against Iraq.
Jordan stands to lose vital trade with Iraq if it was seen by its neighbor to be agreeing or facilitating the use of force against Baghdad.
Official figures show that Iraq was Jordan's largest foreign trade partner last year, importing Jordanian goods worth about $700 million.
Resource-barren Jordan also receives its entire daily requirement of 90,000 barrels of Iraqi oil at preferential prices under a deal approved by the United Nations, which imposed sanctions on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Political considerations also figure high in Jordan's tough public stance against a strike on Iraq. Jordan's predominantly Palestinian population is suspicious of the United States and views its Middle East policies as biased in favor of Israel. Jordanians also are sympathetic toward Iraqis, whose government claims the sanctions have killed tens of thousands.
But King Abdullah can't afford to anger the United States. Washington shunned Jordan in 1990, when Abdullah's late father, King Hussein, refused to join a U.S.-led multinational coalition that chased Iraq out of Kuwait after a seven-month occupation.
The United States is a major aid donor to impoverished Jordan. Official figures show that the United States also is one of Jordan's main trade partners, importing goods worth nearly $400 million.
Washington's annual military and economic assistance is expected to increase by $100 million to $325 million this year.