Jordan's King Abdullah Repeats Call for Israeli - Palestinian Peace Talks

Jordan's King Abdullah II asserted on Sunday that the peace negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians must be completed within two years.

"I fear if this short time is over and we don't reach a settlement that there will nothing left for the Palestinians to negotiate over," he said in an interview to Al Arabiya.

He echoed Arab worries about the prospects for peace after the election of the new Israeli government under Olmert and a new Palestinian government led by Hamas.

"What is required now from peace advocates in the region," the King recommended, "is to work on continuing the momentum in the peace process and build on what has been achieved so that we don't lose this historic opportunity."

Abdullah expressed the hope that the Quartet could reinvigorate the road map to allow the Israelis and the Palestinians to resume negotiations from the place where they left off a few years ago.

He appealed to Hamas, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, to adopt a pragmatic approach. But he stopped short of calling on the Islamist group to recognise the Jewish state.

"We hope our Palestinian brothers and especially our brothers in Hamas deal with everything that relates to the Palestinians’ cause with complete realism, and take into account the position of the world around us and many facts and developments that cannot be ignored or reversed," he said.