U.S. Senator John Kerry told an economic forum on Friday he believed the window of opportunity for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was closing.

“It’s closing for a number of reasons – crushed aspirations, demographics, realities on the ground,” the Massachusetts Democrat, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told a World Economic Forum meeting in Jordan.

Kerry’s comments came amid mounting international pressure on Israel to accept the two-state solution, a step Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been reluctant to take.

Earlier Friday, Jordan’s King Abdullah II used his speech at the forum to push the idea of expanding an Arab initiative for peace with Israel to include the entire Muslim world.

“The Arab peace initiative has offered Israel a place in the neighborhood and more – acceptance by 57 nations, the one-third of the UN members that do not recognize Israel,” King Abdullah told a World Economic Forum meeting in Jordan.

“This is true security – security that barriers and armed forces cannot bring,” he said.

The king spoke a day after he pressed Netanyahu to immediately commit to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

U.S. President Barack Obama is due to address the region in a speech in
Cairo next month and foreign ministers of the 57-nation Organisation of
the Islamic Conference are due to meet in Syria on May 23.

An Arab peace initiative, backed by leading U.S. allies such as Saudi
Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, offers Israel normal relations with the 22
countries of the Arab League in return for returning lands to Lebanon,
Syria and the Palestinians.

Israel has reacted coldly to the plan, citing concerns over the return of Palestinian refugees.

Among Arab states, only Egypt, Jordan and Mauritania have diplomatic
relations with Israel. Most Muslim countries avoid political, economic
ties and even diplomatic ties.

The Jordanian monarch, who met Obama in Washington last month, said Obama was committed to seeing a Palestinian state.

“I was encouraged by the president’s commitment to the two-state
solution,” he said. “I was encouraged that in all my conversations in
Washington, it was clear that people know – inaction is not an option.”

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat later said he hopes Netanyahu will heed calls to endorse a two-state solution.

“I hope the king’s words will not fall on deaf ears,” Erekat said.

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