Anderson Cooper 360 Moves to Jordan

While not my favorite story or the best coverage, Anderson Cooper and 360 seemed to be in the groove tonight. For Wednesday evening's show, they move to Jordan to cover the U.S. and Iraq talks. Oh boy...That should be a not so interesting conversation as neither room has much room to negotiate in my opinion. For more indepth details, here's the story from AP:

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) -- Jordan's king said he will press President Bush to focus more attention on resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict when the two meet this week.

In a speech to Parliament Tuesday, King Abdullah II described the Israeli-Palestinian dispute as the "core" issue in the Middle East.

He indicated that when he speaks with Bush, he would underline the need for the United States to push for peace.

Bush, however, is likely to steer the meeting toward Iraq's deteriorating security when he starts a two-day visit to Jordan on Wednesday for talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, hosted by Abdullah.

But Abdullah and the leaders of two other U.S. allies in the Middle East -- Egypt and Saudi Arabia -- argue the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the most pressing crisis in the region, and fear Islamic militancy will strengthen if it is not resolved.

Moderate Arabs want the Bush administration to devote more diplomatic energy on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which has been stagnant since 2000.

Abdullah pledged "all possible support to the Palestinians so they can regain their rights," though he warned that his country would not accept a deal that causes an influx of Palestinians.

"Jordan will not accept an unjust settlement of the issue, nor will Jordan accept any settlement that comes at its expense," Abdullah told lawmakers, who applauded vigorously.

He was referring to fears of a settlement that would cause thousands of Palestinians to settle in the kingdom, upsetting the country's delicate demographic balance.

Roughly half of Jordan's 5.5 million population consists of Palestinian families who fled, or were driven out of, their homes in the 1948 and 1967 Arab-Israeli wars.

The king recognizes the importance of Iraq, diplomats said. Jordan and other moderate Arabs are concerned that growing Shiite influence in Iran, Syria and Lebanon will help hard-line Iran dominate the region and give rise to more extremism.

Arab diplomats said Abdullah was also expected to present Bush with a proposal to curb the war-torn country's sectarian strife before it becomes a full-blown civil war and give Iraqi security and government greater responsibilities.

Few details were available on the proposal, which envisions the possible formation of a military or new national unity government in Iraq, according to the diplomats, who asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.

Thanks to Stillife and Liberation337 for the screencaps.