Jordanian Prime Minister backs one-state solution – if equal rights guaranteed

Jordan’s prime minister has said his country could look positively on a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, so long as it gave equal rights to all.

Speaking to the Guardian, Omar Razzaz slammed Israel’s annexation plans as “ushering in a new apartheid state” that would “push the region into chaos”, but said a “one-state democratic solution” may work.

His comments, which are likely to have been approved by Jordan’s powerful King Abdullah II, provide an interesting insight into the Hashemite Kingdom’s thinking, in particular its leaders’ apparent acknowledgement that the territorial integrity of a Palestinian state in the West Bank may now have weakened irredeemably.

“You close the door to the two-state solution, I could very well look at this positively, if we’re clearly opening the door to a one-state democratic solution,” Razzaz said.

“But nobody in Israel is talking about that, and so we cannot just sugar-coat what they’re doing. Who’s talking about the one-state solution in Israel? They’re talking about apartheid in every single sense.

“I challenge anybody from Israel to say ‘yes, let’s end the two-state solution, it’s not viable, but let’s work together on a one-state democratic solution.’ That, I think, we will look at very favourably. But closing one and wishful thinking about the other is just self-deception.”

Mark Regev, the Israeli ambassador to the UK until recently, said in May that it would be “only fair” to offer Palestinians full Israeli citizenship if Israel were to annex the West Bank, but so far Israeli leaders have given no such promise.