Prince Zeid of Jordan to speak Monday

Both geographically and politically, the relatively small state of Jordan is in the center of events in the Middle East, as the country’s ambassador to the United States, Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein, will discuss Monday.

The talk, “U.S. Policy and the Future of the Middle East,” will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Whittenberger Auditorium of the Indiana Memorial Union. The speech will consist of an approximately 45-minute discussion with visiting law professor Feisal Istrabadi, followed by a 45-minute question-and-answer portion. The two men met while working at the United Nations in New York years ago, when Istrabadi was the deputy permanent representative for Iraq and Zeid served as the permanent representative for Jordan, a position he left in 2007, Istrabadi said.

“They’re quite literally in the middle of everything,” Istrabadi said. “It is a pivotal country in that it has relations with everybody.”

Jordan shares borders and diplomatic ties with Israel, Syria, Palestine, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, Istrabadi said.

“He represents a country that is really at the crossroads of the Middle East,” said junior Miles Taylor, director of the Student Alliance for National Security. “It’s a very stable country; it’s a very representative country.”

More important, perhaps, is the country’s attitude toward the United States.

“It has been a pro-Western country in a region that has not been known for having pro-Western countries,” Istrabadi said, adding that within Iraq, basically every side trusts Jordan. “If there’s going to be a deal broker, Jordan will be one of the primary intermediaries.”

Zeid is one of the key players, not only in Jordan, but on an international scale.

Aside from serving as his kingdom’s U.N. permanent representative from 2000 to 2007, he played a key role in creating the International Criminal Court and was elected the first president of its governing body in 2002, Taylor said. After reports of widespread abuse by U.N. peacekeepers in Africa came to light in 2004, Zeid was appointed adviser to the secretary-general on sexual exploitation and abuse.

“He is himself personally a very interesting man with a lot of experiences,” Istrabadi said. He also praised Zeid on his articulation, saying he earned a bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University and holds a doctorate from Cambridge University.

Nazif Shahrani, chair of the Near Eastern Languages and Cultures Department, said events like this are especially important in an election year.

“I think that we, as a nation, have to pay attention to the things that happen around the world,” Shahrani said. “We cannot be hiding in a cocoon.”

Americans are obligated to realize every country is interconnected regardless of borders, he said, and an educational setting is the best place to start.

“We’re lucky to be in this university environment, that people with knowledge and experience come to speak with us,” Shahrani said.