Ammon News - WASHINGTON His Majesty King Abdullah II on Wednesday said that achieving Palestinian-Israeli peace based on the two-state solution which guarantees an independent Palestinian state on Palestinian national soil and living in security and peace alongside Israel is a precondition for security and stability of all countries of the Middle East.

"Solving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict based on the two-state solution is the key to regional peace which leads to normal relations between Israel and 57 Arab and Muslim nations that have endorsed the Arab Peace Initiative," King Abdullah said prior to a meeting hosted by US President Barack Obama and brought together Egyptian President Mohammad Hosni Mubarak, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Middle East Peace Quartet Representative Tony Blair to launch direct Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations.

The King stressed that direct talks should achieve positive results as soon as possible as "time is not on our side".

He also underlined the need "to spare no effort in addressing all final-status issues with a view to reaching the two-state solution."

The king added that the two-state solution is " the only solution that guarantees the interests of all and the only solution that can a future worthy of our great region, a future of peace, in which fathers and mothers can raise their children without fear and young people can look forward to lives of achievement and hope and 300 million people can cooperate for mutual benefit."

The price of failure , King Abdullah warned, will be too high for all.

He said that " Peace is also a right for every citizen in our region and for too long too many people of the region have been denied, their most basic of human rights to live in peace, security and dignity."

The king said that peace which could not be achieved for decades is not easy but there is a need for success as failure would be success of radicals and extremists in sinking the region into more instability and wars.

His majesty added that not achieving peace for decades caused suffering for millions of men, women, and children and made too many people to lose faith in the ability to bring them the peace they want.

The inability to achieve peace allowed radicals and terrorists to exploit frustrations to feed hatred and drag the whole world into regional conflicts, that cannot be addressed effectively until the Arabs and Israelis find peace, King Abdullah said.

He warned that there are those, on both sides, who want peace efforts to fail and will do everything in their power to disrupt our efforts today because, when the Palestinians and Israelis find peace, when young men and women can look to a future of promise and opportunity, radicals and extremists lose their most potent appeal.

King Abdullah valued in his remarks President Obama's commitment to the cause of peace, stressing the importance of the US as a mediator, "an honest broker, and a partner as the parties move along the hard, but inevitable, path of settlement."

His Majesty said that President Obama has said that Middle East peace is in the national security interest of the USA.

"We believe it is. It is also a strategic European interest and it is a necessary requirement, for global security and stability.", the King added.

He stressed that "Our peoples want peace, and we can do so if we approach these negotiations with good will, sincerity and courage".

* Petra