Jordan king calls for end to Israel 'aggression'

Jordan's King Abdullah II called for an immediate halt to Israeli "aggression" against Gaza as he received Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair on Sunday, the royal palace said. The monarch stressed "the need to speed up regional and international efforts to bring an immediate halt to Israeli aggression and military escalation," it said in a statement. The Israeli campaign was a "dangerous threat to the security and stability of the region, increasing the suffering of Palestinians in the strip," the king was quoted as saying. He added that a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be reached. King Abdullah met Blair for talks on developments in the Middle East, particularly Israel's offensive against Gaza, which began on Wednesday with the targeted killing of Hamas's top military leader in an air strike. On Saturday, the Jordanian ruler had ordered the dispatch of urgent humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza. The king, whose government has a 1994 peace agreement with the Jewish state, has been facing a wave of domestic protests initially sparked by big fuel price increases but which have taken on increasing political overtones.