Testimony Ambassador-Designate Robert Stephen Beecroft
Committee on Foreign Relations
United
States Senate
Opening Statement
May 1, 2008
Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee:
It is an honor to appear before you today as President Bush's nominee to
serve as Ambassador to Jordan.
I am grateful to the President and Secretary Rice for the confidence they have
placed in me. If confirmed, I will do my best to live up to their trust and to
work as closely as possible with this Committee to carry out my responsibilities.
With your permission, Mr. Chairman, I would like to begin by expressing appreciation
for my family. My wife, Anne, and my children, Blythe, Warren,
Sterling, and
Grace, are here with me today. It is my family's support and sacrifice that has,
more than anything, helped me carry out my responsibilities as a Foreign
Service officer.
Mr. Chairman, we have no closer friend or ally in the Arab world than Jordan.
In the Middle East and around the world, Jordan works closely and
constructively with us to promote peace and security and to fight terrorism. At
home, it is engaged with the sometimes difficult and complicated task of reform,
a process that we actively support and encourage.
There is no more telling example of Jordan's positive efforts in the
region than it's close cooperation with us to help realize a two-state solution
to the Israeli Palestinian conflict. As one of only two Arab states to sign a
peace accord with Israel, Jordan is
committed to the Roadmap and is tangibly supporting the process,including
by providing police training for Palestinian security forces.
With Iraq, Jordan is
actively involved on the humanitarian front, taking in hundreds of thousands of
Iraqi refugees. It has increasingly taken steps to ensure the dignity and well-being
of those refugees, opening its schools and hospitals to them, working with the
international communality to provide assistance, and facilitating our own
refugee admissions program. Jordan
is also working with us and the Iraqi government to increase security. [t has, for
example, hosted over
54,000
Iraqi
police officers for training.
Outside its immediate region, Jordan
was at the forefront in publicly supporting our efforts in Afghanistan, where
it has deployed a field hospital and a de-mining unit. Jordan has also become a leading troop
contributor to UN peacekeeping operations worldwide, having sent military and
police personnel to Haiti, Cote d'ivoire,
and Darfur, among other places.
Jordan has also
begun pursuing reform at home. For example, in 2006, the government rolled out
a ten-year road map for economic and political development.
It then took a step forward by allowing Jordanian monitors to observe
its 2007
Parliamentary elections. Through our assistance programs, we are
supporting
Jordan's reform
agenda. We are, however, also engaged with its government and
Its people to encourage broader democratic development. Our efforts
include work to expand citizen participation in the country's political and
economic systems;strengthen independent media, the
judicial system, and the rights of women and laborers; and increase religious
tolerance.
If confirmed, I will work diligently with the Jordanian government and
people to pursue our democratic reform, development, and security goals and to
strengthen the bilateral relationship. I will also work to ensure that all of
our assistance effectively and efficiently advances those goals.
I appreciate and value this Committee's oversight of our mission in Jordan. If confirmed,
I look forward to welcoming the Committee's members and staff to
Amman. Your
presence and interest are a vital element in ensuring that we remain productively
and successfully engaged with the government and people of Jordan.
