{"id":98364,"date":"2025-10-13T19:16:50","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T19:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=98364"},"modified":"2025-10-13T19:16:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T19:16:50","slug":"middle-east-doomed-without-palestinian-state-king-of-jordan-tells-bbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=98364","title":{"rendered":"Middle East \u2018doomed\u2019 without Palestinian state, King of Jordan tells BBC"},"content":{"rendered":"
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King Abdullah II of Jordan has warned that the Middle East is doomed unless there is a peace process leading to a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n

The king was speaking in an exclusive interview for BBC Panorama, as he prepared to attend a summit in Egypt\u2019s Sharm el-Sheikh on President Donald Trump\u2019s 20-point peace plan for the region.<\/p>\n

The summit is taking place on the day Hamas released the last living Israeli hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and detainees held by Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t solve this problem,\u201d King Abdullah said, \u201cif we don\u2019t find a future for Israelis and Palestinians and a relationship between the Arab and Muslim worlds and Israel, we\u2019re doomed.\u201d<\/p>\n

King Abdullah said the region had seen many failed attempts at peace and that the implementation of a two-state solution \u2013 the creation of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, alongside Israel \u2013 was the only answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope we can move things back, but with a political horizon, because if we don\u2019t solve this problem, we\u2019re going to be at it again,\u201d the king said.<\/p>\n

Israel has repeatedly rejected a two-state solution. At the United Nations General Assembly last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was emphatic in his opposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, they effectively had a Palestinian state \u2013 in Gaza. What did they do with that state? Peace? Co-existence?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, they attacked us time and time again, totally unprovoked, they fired rockets into our cities, they murdered our children, they turned Gaza into a terror base from which they committed the October 7 massacre,\u201d he added, referring to the Hamas-led attacks two years ago that triggered this Gaza conflict.<\/p>\n

However, it was at the same UN assembly that President Trump called King Abdullah and other regional leaders to a meeting to outline his peace plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe message he gave all of us was that, \u2018This has to stop. It has to stop now.\u2019 And we said, \u2018You know, Mr President, if anybody can do it, it\u2019s you,’\u201d King Abdullah said.<\/p>\n

Referring to the violence of the last two years, including Israel\u2019s war with Iran and the Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar last month, King Abdullah asked: \u201cHow close have we come to regional, if not a southern-northern divide conflict that would have encompassed the whole world?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Speaking of Netanyahu, the Jordanian leader said he did not \u201ctrust a thing he says\u201d. But he believed there were Israelis with whom Arab leaders could work to build peace.<\/p>\n

As for Hamas and its acceptance to hand over governance of Gaza to an independent Palestinian body under the terms of the ceasefire agreement, the king said he been assured by those \u201cthat are working extremely close to them, Qatar and Egypt, [who] feel very, very optimistic that they will abide by that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the king warned that the \u201cdevil was in the detail\u201d of the Trump mediated agreement, and that once a ceasefire had been achieved in Gaza it was vital that the US president remained engaged with the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our discussions with President Trump, he knows that it\u2019s not just Gaza, it\u2019s not just a particular political horizon. I mean he\u2019s looking at bringing peace to the whole region. That doesn\u2019t happen unless the Palestinians have a future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Middle<\/figure>\n

Jordan has had a peace treaty with Israel since 1994, despite opposition from many in the country. More than 50% of the country\u2019s population is of Palestinian descent. The two countries co-operate on some security issues.<\/p>\n

The peace was agreed by the current monarch\u2019s late father, King Hussein, with the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist the following year. I asked King Abdullah if he believed he would see a final peace agreement including a Palestinian state within his own lifetime?<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to, because the alternative would mean probably the end of the region. My father, I remember towards the end of his life, used to say, \u2018I want peace for my children and their children.\u2019 I have two grandchildren; they deserve that peace. How awful would it be for them to grow up to say the same thing that my father said years ago?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think that\u2019s what galvanises me and many of us in the region, that peace is the only option. Because if it doesn\u2019t come about, how often is the West, America in particular, dragged into this? It\u2019s been 80 years. And I think it\u2019s time for all of us to say enough is enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 67,000 people have been killed by Israel\u2019s military in Gaza since 7 October 2023, according to health ministry officials in the Hamas-run territory.<\/p>\n

History does not offer much reason for hope, but King Abdullah believes this is a moment of genuine possibility.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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