AMMAN: Jordan's King Abdullah said on Wednesday no peace was possible in the Middle East without the emergence of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
The latest violence - which broke out when Hamas fighters attacked Israel at the weekend - showed the region would not "enjoy stability, security or peace" without a sovereign Palestinian state on land that Israel had captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, he said.
A two-state solution was the only option, the monarch told deputies in a speech at the opening of a new parliamentary session.
"Our region will never be secure nor stable without achieving just and comprehensive peace on the basis of the two-state solution," the monarch said.
A two-state solution has long been the bedrock of international peacemaking efforts, but the process has been moribund for years and the possibility of it happening has dimmed even before the renewed bloodshed.
King Abdullah has since the start of the latest conflict been engaged in a flurry of diplomatic efforts with Western and regional leaders urging swift action to de-escalate the situation, officials say.
Officials said the monarch, whom U.S. President Joe Biden called, will voice the kingdom's concerns with U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken when he arrives in Amman.
"A Palestinian independent and sovereign state should be on June 4th, 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and so that the cycles of killing, whose ultimate victims are innocent civilians, end," King Abdullah said.
The outpouring of anger against Israel also fuelled a large rally in downtown Amman, where several thousand protesters chanted slogans in support of Hamas. — Reuters
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
