Prince Charles fears there will be very few Christians left in Mideast

Prince Charles has toured a sprawling camp for Syrian refugees in Jordan, chatting with residents and sampling tea and bread on a walk down the main road.

The prince was accompanied on Sunday to the Zaatari refugee camp, home to 80,000 people, by Britain’s international development minister. More than 3 million Syrians have fled their war-torn country since 2011.

The heir to the throne is on a sixday Middle East trip. He told the BBC he fears there will be “very, very few” Christians left in the Middle East after the turmoil wracking the region.

He said the plight of Christians persecuted by Islamic extremists was “a most agonizing situation,” though it was important to remember they were just one persecuted minority among many around the world.

“But at the same time I fear that the problems in the Middle East are not going to go away immediately,” the prince said in a pre-recorded interview. He appealed for more work to build bridges between religions.

If he succeeds his mother Queen Elizabeth II as monarch, Charles will become temporal head of the Church of England and take the title “Defender of the Faith.” He said that although the title refers to the Anglican faith, he believed the role involved protecting others’ freedom to worship.

“It always seems to me that while at the same time being Defender of the Faith you can also be protector of faiths,” he said.

On Saturday the 66-year-old prince began a six-day trip to Jordan and the Gulf states.

He met Iraqi Christian refugees in Amman and spent time with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, days after Islamic State militants released a video showing a captured Jordanian fighter pilot being burned alive.

Hundreds of people from Britain have joined militants in Syria. Charles said the number of young Britons turning to extremism was alarming — although “some aspect of this radicalization is a search for adventure and excitement at a particular age.”

He said “The frightening part” was how many people became radicalized through “the extraordinary amount of crazy stuff” on the Internet.

In Jordan, the U.K.’s international development minister, Justine Greening, said in a statement her country will pay an additional $150 million to help displaced Syrians and their host communities in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq.