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The embattled regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is not close to falling despite nearly two years of fighting between government forces and rebels seeking to depose him, Jordan's King Abdullah II said Friday, according to CNN. 

"Anyone who says that Bashar's regime has got weeks to live really doesn't know the reality on the ground," he said during a panel appearance with CNN's Fareed Zakaria at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"They still have capability. ... So (I expect) a strong showing for at least the first half of 2013."

Nonetheless, fears are growing that Syria may implode as the protracted conflict gets nastier.

Any fragmentation of the country into small states would be "catastrophic and something that we would be reeling from for decades to come," Abdullah said.

He also warned of the threat of foreign jihadist fighters now in Syria.

Al Qaeda has been established there for the past year and is getting support "from certain quarters," the king said.

"They are a force to contend with, so even if we got the best government into Damascus tomorrow, we have at least two or three years of securing our borders from them coming across and to clean them up," he said.

Comparing the militant threat with that seen in Afghanistan, Abdullah said that "the new Taliban that we are going to have to deal with will be in Syria."