Egypt, Jordan stress two-state solution as key to end Mideast conflict

Egyptian president and Jordanian king held talks in Cairo on Tuesday where they reiterated the two-state solution as a "fixed national principle" to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Egyptian presidential spokesman said in a statement.

The meeting came a few days after U.S. President Donald Trump said in a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington that the two-state solution is not the only way to settle the dispute, which backs off U.S. commitment to sponsor it for Mideast peace.

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan King Abdullah II discussed methods of joint coordination "to realize the two-state solution and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state" as one of the fixed national principles that cannot be relinquished, said the statement.

The two leaders expressed keenness on preserving the rights of the Palestinian people, stressing the necessity of ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to restore stability to the Middle East region.

Israel has always been blamed by the international community for the deadlock of the Middle East peace process due to its settlement expansion policy that is rejected even by its strongest ally, the United States.

Still, confident in Trump's support, the Israeli government recently announced plans to build about 6,000 Jewish settlement housing units in the West Bank. The announcement was preceded by an Israeli parliamentary approval of the so-called "Regulation Bill" that retroactively legalizes about 3,850 housing units in dozens of outposts built illegally on privately owned Palestinian lands.

Earlier in mid-February, Cairo hosted separate meetings of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres with President Sisi and Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul-Gheit where the world's top diplomat underscored that "there is not plan B for the two-state solution." Endit