He knows what he’s talking about, Jordan’s GID intelligence agency is the most effective in the Arab world.

(AFP) — The king of Jordan warned Wednesday that his northern neighborSyria was on the brink of all-out civil war and that in a worst-case scenario, chemical weapons could fall into the hands of Al-Qaeda.

King Abdullah II told CNN a bomb attack that killed core members of the Syrian regime was a “tremendous blow” to President Bashar al-Assad but not yet the death knell for a regime that remains determined to cling to power.

“In other words, it’s getting very, very messy to a point where I think the worst-case scenario for all of us in the region is when you get full-out civil war. There is no coming back from the abyss,” he said.

Earlier, a bomb attack in Damascus killed key Syrian officials, including Defense Minister Daoud Rajha, Assad’s brother-in-law Assef Shawkat and General Hassan Turkmani, head of the regime’s crisis cell on the uprising.

“I think as we continue to pursue the political option, the realities on the ground may have overtaken us. Therefore I think the clock is ticking,” he said.

“I think we should continue to give politics its due. But if we haven’t already passed that window, I think we’re getting very close to it.

“If it breaks down, if civil order breaks down to the point of no return, then it will take years to fix Syria. And I have a feeling we’re seeing signs of that over the past three weeks,” he warned.

“The only people that can bring us back from that brink are obviously the president and the regime. And I believe this is the last chance they have,” he said. “This is a situation that is rapidly spinning out of control.”

Asked about reports that Syrian forces have begun moving chemical weapons stocks, Abdullah said he was concerned that in the event of a descent into all-out war, the arms could fall into extremist hands.

“Our information is that there is a presence of Al-Qaeda in certain regions inside Syria, and has been there for a while,” he told CNN.