Our Last Best Chance_ The Pursuit of Peace in a Time of Peril - King Abdullah II [87]
The nuclear power issue is particularly sensitive in the Middle East. Israel, the only nuclear power in the region, continues to refuse to join the NPT or to allow inspection of its nuclear facilities. The international community has taken little or no action to pressure Israel to joint the NPT or to open its facilities for inspection. Lately, the controversy over Iran’s nuclear program has become a global concern, as the international community is adamant on preventing Iran from developing its uranium enrichment capacity, fearing that its real intentions are to develop a military nuclear program. Israel’s “privileged” nuclear position has led public opinion in the region to again point to double standards in applying international law.
Our nuclear program is not seen in that controversial context. Jordan’s credibility as a force for peace in the region and the transparent approach to developing nuclear energy in cooperation with international organizations and compliance with international standards have won our program the endorsement and support of the international community.
As important as negotiating trade agreements, reforming our educational system, boosting our domestic industry, and reducing our energy dependence have been in putting Jordan on the path of sustainable economic growth, sometimes our economy has been boosted in less expected ways.
In 1988, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas came to Jordan to film scenes for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. They were accompanied by the stars of the film, Harrison Ford and Sean Connery. My father asked me to meet them when they arrived in Aqaba and to take them to Petra, eighty miles to the north, where they would begin filming. Built by the Nabateans over two thousand years ago, the ruins at Petra are among the most spectacular ancient monuments in the world. Spielberg thought the massive temples, carved from living rock, would be the perfect location for the Canyon of the Crescent Moon, where the movie’s final scene takes place.
I was an army officer at the time, and my father offered to take Spielberg, Lucas, Connery, and Ford to Petra by helicopter so that they could view the dramatic scenery from the air. I got the job of pilot. As we were strapping ourselves in, my copilot leaned over and, pointing to Sean Connery, said in Arabic, “Who’s that guy? He looks familiar.”
“That’s Sean Connery,” I told him. “He played James Bond.”
“Right,” my copilot said with a chuckle as we took off. “We’ll show him who’s the real James Bond!”
We flew low out of the airport, barely clearing a fence at the end of the runway, and headed north up the valley toward Petra, hugging the ground. After about twenty minutes, Spielberg, his knuckles white from holding on to the seat, leaned over and asked if we really had to fly so low.
I decided to play along with my copilot’s joke. “Sir,” I replied, “we could go higher, but we are flying along the Israeli border, and there’s no telling what they might do. . . . Of course, if you are willing to take the risk, no problem.” Spielberg nodded, and we increased our altitude a nudge and flew a little higher.
We landed near the ruins, and the cast and crew soon set to work transforming the narrow, winding gorge that opens onto Al Khazneh, a temple carved out of the valley’s sandstone wall, into the Temple of the Sun, the film’s mythical hiding place for the Holy Grail.
I was not able to attend the movie’s premiere the following year, but my brother Feisal was there. He met Harrison Ford and introduced himself, saying, “My brother was the helicopter pilot who flew you up to Petra.”
“That guy scared the crap out of us!” Ford said.
Years later, after my father died, I met Steven Spielberg again, and he still remembered that ride. “Why did you do that to us?” he asked.
“Well,” I said, “sooner or later I figured you were going to make a film about helicopter pilots. And