Donald Trump has joked that Israel could one day have a Prime Minister named "Mohammad".
The US President made the comment in June while meeting with King Abdullah of Jordan at the White House, US news site Axios reported, citing French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who was told the story by King Abdullah earlier this month.
Mr Trump and King Abdullah were reportedly discussing the long-proposed one-state solution to the Israel-Palestine problem.
According to Mr Le Drian, King Abdullah told Mr Trump many young Palestinians want to "live together with the Israelis in one state with equal rights for all", but that would mean Israel would "lose its Jewish character".
"What you say makes sense," Mr Trump replied. "[In a one-state scenario,] the prime minister of Israel in a few years will be called Mohammed."
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Mr Trump said it in a sarcastic tone, King Abdullah told Mr Le Drian, adding that if his US administration can't bring peace to the Middle East, no one ever will.
The White House and Jordanian embassy declined to comment on the report, which Axios says was confirmed by others who were present at the meeting.
The one-state solution has been around as long as the modern state of Israel has existed. The UN adopted a resolution dividing the country into separate Jewish and Arab states in 1948, which Arab leaders rejected, kicking off the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
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New Zealand officially recognises Palestine as its own state, and supports a two-state solution.
"We believe that Israel and a Palestinian state should exist side by side, each respecting the other's right to peace," then-Foreign Minister Murray McCully said in 2012, when New Zealand voted for the UN to grant Palestine "non-member state" UN observer status.
"We believe that they should arrive at that conclusion through direct talks."
The US doesn't recognise Palestine, but does have diplomatic relations.
Newshub.
