His Majesty King Abdullah said in a BBC interview aired on Monday that moving the Palestinian issue in the right direction would give the international community more flexibility to deal with other Middle East problems.

“If we can move that in the positive direction, it allows us much more flexibility in dealing with the others,” King Abdullah told the BBC.

“I keep saying that Israeli-Palestinian issue is the core issue in the Middle East, the central issue at the heart of all Arabs and Muslims.”

The King asked: “If we don't have a Palestinian state, can we ever have peace between the Arabs and the Israelis?” He said efforts should focus now on launching the peace process.

“As difficult and as dark it gets, we have to keep trying, and this is what we're saying, specifically on the Palestinian issue,” the King said.

His Majesty added: “We see a spike of tension and crises, and I think that's why everybody's scrambling to restore calm as quickly as possible… there are voices of reason out there, and I'm hoping that they're beginning to pick up momentum.”

The Jordan Times