Jordan's King Abdullah warned feuding Palestinians on Wednesday that their hopes of statehood could be permanently wrecked within months unless they avoid civil war. Palestinians had to put aside internal differences and face other challenges, he said, citing what he described as a growing right-wing camp in Israel pursuing an uncompromising "fortress Israel" mindset rather than "integration in the region."
The power struggle between Hamas and Fatah could be exploited by Israel and worsen the Palestinians' plight, Abdullah said, according to Reuters. "All of us have to work to reach out to our Palestinian brothers and get them to take a step back and see that this is not the time for infighting," the Jordanian monarch said.
"A lot is at stake today and if we fail now, we risk pushing Palestinian aspirations so far behind that it will take a long time to bring us back to where we want to be, and in the process, risk the future of Palestine," he added.
Abdullah said time was fast running out to forge an Arab-Israel peace based on two states, Israel and Palestine. "I really think that by the first half of 2007 we might wake up to the reality and realize that the two-state solution is no longer attainable, and then what?," he said.
"My view of a two-state solution is a viable Palestinian state, and this is becoming more and more blurred for me. It was much more concrete, recently," Abdullah said.
"I think we are really running out of time. Physically on the ground and geographically, I think there is less and less of a West Bank and Jerusalem to talk about," said Abdullah.
"We want to go back to the 1967 borders. We are talking about that today. Are we going to talk about that tomorrow though? This is the danger," he said.
Rising Iranian influence and the spread of Islamic fundamentalism had also brought more regional instability that dimmed peace prospects even further, he said.
