King Abdullah meets Abbas

Jordan's King Abdullah II met Tuesday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the situation in the Palestinian territories, with Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II also in attendance.

The Jordanian monarch was unequivocal. The region will not achieve stability, he said, unless Palestinians obtain their full legitimate rights and an independent Palestinian state is established on the basis of the two-state solution. 

He also underscored Jordan's firm rejection of any Israeli measures aimed at exploiting the current regional turmoil to impose new facts on the ground in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.

King Abdullah pledged to continue mobilising effective international support for the Palestinian cause.

The meeting carries particular weight given Jordan's unique demographic reality. Approximately 60% of Jordan's population is of Palestinian origin, making the Palestinian question not merely a foreign policy issue for Amman, but a matter of profound domestic concern and national identity.

For King Abdullah, walking the tightrope between his close alliance with Washington, his peace treaty with Israel and the deeply felt Palestinian sympathies of his own population has always been one of the defining challenges of his reign.