UNSC has failed to settle Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Swedish diplomat

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 1 (APP):Sweden’s top diplomat at the United Nations has criticized the U.N. Security Council for its failure to resolve the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict that poses a threat to international peace and security.
“The Security Council is not doing enough to tackle the Israeli-Palestinian question, although it is hugely disruptive and spills over to other tensions in the region,” Swedish ambassador Olof Skoog said at the end of his country’s Security Council presidency.
“Resolving it should be a priority. Has it been a priority? I am afraid not,” he told reporters in response to a question. “Everyone is waiting for a peace plan that no one really knows the details of.”
He deplored the fact that things were not going in a positive way. “There have just been a lot of events that are moving further away from peace than closer to peace.”
“The decision to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was not something we (Sweden) approved of. Actually we were very openly critical of it,” Ambassador Skoog said.
The recent adoption of the nation-state law by the Israeli parliament bars Palestinian participation in political life in Israel, he said.
The controversial law defines Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. Under its terms, only Jews have the right of self-determination in Israel. The law also revokes Arabic of its status as an official language alongside Hebrew.
The Swedish ambassador warned that Gaza was on the brink of war. “Almost on daily basis the tensions are there that could escalate very quickly.”
“It’s a very very dangerous situation and I don’t think the Security Council has done enough about it,” he said.
The ambassador said he does not see any signs of positive trend in the months to come.