Jordan's King Abdullah on Monday told a gathering of world leaders at U.N. headquarters that a lack of regional peace is hindering development in the Middle East. He was speaking at a high-level meeting on achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)-a set of eight development targets agreed on in 2000, with a 2015 deadline. “A burden faces development across our region: the lack of regional peace,” King Abdullah said. “When warfare and violence divert resources from social needs and economic growth, economies and community life are undermined, and poverty and frustration grow.” He added that the region has “enormous potential” for development but it has been denied the peace needed to achieve this potential. That peace can only be achieved by resolving the Israeli -Palestinian conflict, on the basis of a two-state solution, the King said. On Jordan's efforts to achieve the MDGs, he said that the second goal, ensuring universal primary education, had essentially been achieved in the Hashemite Kingdom. “We are in the process of achieving many of our millennium goals,” the King said. “Goal 2, for example, has effectively been achieved: ensuring that all children enroll in primary school and stay in school, ending youth illiteracy, and giving out students the foundation they need to advance in life.”
