UNITED NATIONS, Jul 28 (APP): A United Nations conference aimed at bolstering efforts to reach a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestine is set to begin at UN Headquarters on Monday, but the US and Israel are boycotting the event.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Senator Ishaq Dar, will head Pakistan’s delegation to the conference. Scores of ministers from around the world have arrived in New York for the event.
Speaking to Arab News ahead of the conference, DPM/FM Dar said: “Pakistan has a clear foreign policy for decades that the two-state solution is the only answer to the Palestine problem.”
He welcomed the initiative by France and Saudi Arabia, describing it as “very appreciable”, and expressed hope that the summit would lead to concrete results.
The event — officially titled the High-Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution — is being described as both urgent and historic.
The backdrop is grim: since the Oct. 7, 2023, the Israeli war in Gaza has taken an unimaginable toll. More than 56,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed, and the Gaza Strip’s infrastructure and social fabric are in ruins.
The 193-member UN General Assembly decided in September last year that such a conference would be held in 2025. It was postponed in June after Israel attacked Iran.
Days before the July 28-30 conference, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he would formally recognize the State of Palestine in September.
Paris’s decision “will breathe new life into a conference that seemed destined to irrelevance”, said Richard Gowan, an analyst at the International Crisis Group.
Last week, President Macron called for Britain and France to jointly recognize a Palestinian state, joining other European nations, including Spain and Norway, that did so last year.
Israel has rejected recognition of Palestinian statehood, saying doing so would serve as a reward for the Hamas.
From the outset, Saudi Arabia has underscored that recognizing the State of Palestine is not merely symbolic but a “strategic necessity” for regional peace.
Ahead of the conference, Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan issued a statement saying that the kingdom “spares no effort in supporting all endeavours aimed at achieving just peace in the region and globally. It consistently stresses the importance of implementing the two-state solution through political, diplomatic, and international efforts, as it is a strategic choice that ensures regional and global peace and security.
“From this standpoint came the Kingdom’s presidency — together with the French Republic — of the international conference at the ministerial level to settle the Palestinian issue peacefully.”
Slovenia’s permanent representative to the UN, Samuel Zbogar, told Arab News: “The main goal of the conference is to mobilize concrete political, security, and economic support for the implementation of the two-state solution. This should result in an independent, sovereign, and democratic Palestinian state that will coexist in peace and security with Israel.”
APP/ift