Middle East 'doomed' without Palestinian state, King of Jordan tells BBC

King Abdullah II of Jordan has warned that the Middle East is doomed unless there is a peace process leading to a Palestinian state.

The king was speaking in an exclusive interview for BBC Panorama, as he prepared to attend a summit in Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh on President Donald Trump's 20-point peace plan for the region.

The summit is taking place on the day Hamas released the last living Israeli hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and detainees held by Israel.

"If we don't solve this problem," King Abdullah said, "if we don't find a future for Israelis and Palestinians and a relationship between the Arab and Muslim worlds and Israel, we're doomed."

King Abdullah said the region had seen many failed attempts at peace and that the implementation of a two-state solution - the creation of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, alongside Israel - was the only answer.

"I hope we can move things back, but with a political horizon, because if we don't solve this problem, we're going to be at it again," the king said.

Israel has repeatedly rejected a two-state solution. At the United Nations General Assembly last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was emphatic in his opposition.

"In fact, they effectively had a Palestinian state - in Gaza. What did they do with that state? Peace? Co-existence?"

"No, they attacked us time and time again, totally unprovoked, they fired rockets into our cities, they murdered our children, they turned Gaza into a terror base from which they committed the October 7 massacre," he added, referring to the Hamas-led attacks two years ago that triggered this Gaza conflict.

However, it was at the same UN assembly that President Trump called King Abdullah and other regional leaders to a meeting to outline his peace plan.

"The message he gave all of us was that, 'This has to stop. It has to stop now.' And we said, 'You know, Mr President, if anybody can do it, it's you,'" King Abdullah said.

Referring to the violence of the last two years, including Israel's war with Iran and the Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar last month, King Abdullah asked: "How close have we come to regional, if not a southern-northern divide conflict that would have encompassed the whole world?"

Speaking of Netanyahu, the Jordanian leader said he did not "trust a thing he says". But he believed there were Israelis with whom Arab leaders could work to build peace.

As for Hamas and its acceptance to hand over governance of Gaza to an independent Palestinian body under the terms of the ceasefire agreement, the king said he been assured by those "that are working extremely close to them, Qatar and Egypt, [who] feel very, very optimistic that they will abide by that."

But the king warned that the "devil was in the detail" of the Trump mediated agreement, and that once a ceasefire had been achieved in Gaza it was vital that the US president remained engaged with the process.

"In our discussions with President Trump, he knows that it's not just Gaza, it's not just a particular political horizon. I mean he's looking at bringing peace to the whole region. That doesn't happen unless the Palestinians have a future."

Jordan has had a peace treaty with Israel since 1994, despite opposition from many in the country. More than 50% of the country's population is of Palestinian descent, including the King's wife, Queen Rania. The two countries co-operate on security issues and Jordan shot down Iranian drones and missiles fired at Israel in June.

The peace treaty was signed by the current monarch's late father, King Hussein, with the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist the following year. I asked King Abdullah if he believed he would see a final peace agreement including a Palestinian state within his own lifetime?

"I have to, because the alternative would mean probably the end of the region. My father, I remember towards the end of his life, used to say, 'I want peace for my children and their children.' I have two grandchildren; they deserve that peace. How awful would it be for them to grow up to say the same thing that my father said years ago?"

"And I think that's what galvanises me and many of us in the region, that peace is the only option. Because if it doesn't come about, how often is the West, America in particular, dragged into this? It's been 80 years. And I think it's time for all of us to say enough is enough."

More than 67,000 people have been killed by Israel's military in Gaza since 7 October 2023, according to health ministry officials in the Hamas-run territory.

History does not offer much reason for hope, but King Abdullah believes this is a moment of genuine possibility.