King Abdullah of Jordan Jordanian monarch told a US reporter on his visit to Washington that said that \"some modest progress had been achieved in regards to Palestine Israel talks after two weeks of negotiations in Amman adding that both sides are looking for a way to break the impasse that has stalled peace negotiations for more than two years.\"
In an interview with The Washington Post\'s Joby warrick, the King stressed that these meetings provide a floor for more official talks warning that that time is running out.
\"I do believe they want a way out, a way to get to [direct] negotiations,\" king Abdullah said. \"We all know the positions in which they have entrenched themselves. However, the intent, I believe, is there from both sides. It is little baby steps, right at the beginning.\", the king added.
Despite widespread pessimism about the outcome, the discussions have been \"both good and tough,\" and a chance for the two sides to \"start throwing initial passes at each other\" to set the stage for more formal negotiations, King Abdullah said.
However, the king pointed that \"The more the Israelis play with kicking this down the line, the more they are in danger of losing what they think is the ideal future Israel\". \"When we get to the point that the two-state solution is no longer feasible, what then? he said.
King Abdullah said that we cannot expect the United States to press the situation forward, since it is distracted by its economic woes and leery of wasting political capital, unless we prepare a base that allows this.
He also said he expected more violence and conflict in Syria, adding that we will not witness something different from what we saw in the past two months.
\"You are going to continue to see violence and demonstrations and conflict in Syria for the time being. I don’t see anything that is going to change what we’ve been seeing over the past couple of months unless there is an unforeseen situation where the international community gets more involved. Here I have my concerns. Jordan, first, is with the Arab consensus. But at the same time, we have been on record, historically, of saying we have a policy of noninterference. And when people go for the armed option, I believe that is a dangerous Pandora’s Box.\"
Regarding political reform efforts in Jordan, the King said we are exerting huge efforts to achieve reform.