King Abdullah says Jordan will keep working towards two-state solution

While Benjamin Netanyahu putting together right-wing government in Israel, Jordan's king reiterates commitment for peace

King Abdullah, right, accompanied by Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, left, receives current Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid in Amman. AFP

Jordan will keep working with its allies to push for a two-state solution to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict, King Abdullah II has said, as a new right-wing governing coalition is being formed in Israel.

A Royal Court statement quoted a letter by the king on Tuesday, written to mark the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, which is organised by the UN.

In the letter, King Abdullah said Jordan “will maintain co-ordination with regional and international partners to push towards the two-state solution.”

He said the kingdom will be “working to relaunch effective negotiations that lead to just and comprehensive peace and protect the rights of the Palestinians.”

His letter was sent to Cheikh Niang, head of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, the palace said.

The committee arose from a 1975 UN General Assembly resolution.

Right-wing prime minister-elect Benjamin Netanyahu gained this month a mandate to form Israel's next cabinet after securing victory in the November 1 election.

Jordanian officials have not commented on the win.

But the kingdom maintained co-ordination on security and other issues with Israel when Mr Netanyahu was previously in power — from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021.

This coincided with regional turbulence that included the US occupation of Iraq, the Syrian civil war and concerns over Iran-backed militias in the region.

The two countries also signed the Wadi Araba peace treaty in 1994, when Yitzhak Rabin of the Labour Party was prime minister of Israel.

Jordan views Mr Netanyahu as having subverted the principle of a two-state solution by expanding settlements and creating other “facts on the ground” that could make it impossible for the Palestinians to establish and manage their own country.

This, Jordanian officials fear, could raise pressure on the Palestinians to the point of prompting another wave of refugees to Jordan.

A large proportion of Jordan's population comprises Palestinians who fled Palestine between 1948 and 1967 and their descendants

In the letter, King Abdullah affirmed “the Palestinians’ right to self-determination and establishing their independent, sovereign and viable state … with East Jerusalem as its capital”, the palace said.

Referring to Israeli incursions in recent years into Al Aqsa mosque and attempts to seize property in Jerusalem, the king said that “undermining the historical and legal status quo in Jerusalem would lead to further escalation, violence and extremism”.