Calls for two-state solution for Israel, Palestinians at UN grow louder
France said a two-state solution is the only path for Israelis and Palestinians at a UN conference co-hosted with Saudi Arabia on Monday, which Israel boycotted and the US called a 'stunt'. Days earlier, President Macron pledged to recognise Palestinian statehood by September, drawing backlash from Israel and Washington
.
There is no alternative to a two-state solution between
Israelis
and the
Palestinians
,
France
told a UN conference co-chaired with
Saudi Arabia
Monday that was boycotted by Israel and branded a stunt by Washington.
'Only a political, two-state solution will help respond to the legitimate aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security. There is no alternative,' French Foreign Minister
Jean-Noel Barrot
said at the start of the three-day meeting.
Days before the conference, French President Emmanuel Macron announced he would
formally recognise Palestinian statehood
in September, provoking strong opposition from Israel and the United States.
Luxembourg hinted Monday that it could follow France and recognise a Palestinian state in September, with the possibility that other countries could announce similar plans when the conference resumes Tuesday.
'All states have a responsibility to act now,' said Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Mustafa at the start of the meeting, calling for an international force to help underwrite Palestinian statehood.
He called for the world to recognise Palestinian statehood, while later demanding that Hamas surrender control of the
Gaza Strip
and its arms as part of a deal to end fighting in the territory.
France is hoping Britain will follow its lead. More than 200 British members of parliament on Friday voiced support for the idea, but Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that recognition of a Palestinian state 'must be part of a wider plan'.
United Nations
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the meeting 'the two-state solution is farther than ever before'.
According to an AFP database, at least 147 of the 193 UN member states now recognize the Palestinian state proclaimed by the Palestinian leadership in exile in 1988.
In 1947, in a resolution approved by the General Assembly, the United Nations decided to partition Palestine, then under a British mandate, into Jewish and Arab states. Israel was proclaimed in 1948.
For decades, most UN members have supported a two-state solution with Israel and a Palestinian state existing side-by-side.
But after more than 21 months of war in Gaza, the ongoing expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and Israeli officials declaring designs to annex occupied territory, it is feared a Palestinian state could become geographically impossible.
The current war in Gaza started following a deadly attack by Hamas on Israel, which responded with a large-scale military response that has claimed tens of thousands of Palestinian lives and destroyed most infrastructure in the enclave.
Barrot said it would be an 'illusion to think that you can get to a lasting ceasefire without having an outline of what's going to happen in Gaza after the end of the war and having a political horizon'.
READ MORE
Israel announces 'tactical pause' to fighting in 3 Gaza areas, aid airdrops begin
Israeli unilateral actions'
Beyond facilitating conditions for recognising Palestine, the meeting will focus on three other issues: reform of the Palestinian Authority, disarmament of Hamas and its exclusion from Palestinian public life, and normalisation of relations with Israel by Arab states.
However, no new normalisation deals are expected to be announced at the meeting, according to a French diplomatic source.
Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud said US President Donald Trump could be a 'catalyst' to ending the war in Gaza and jump-starting the two-state solution, stressing Riyadh had no plans to normalize relations with Israel.
Following his plea to Trump, the US State Department labeled the three-day event 'unproductive and ill-timed', as well as a 'publicity stunt' that would make finding peace harder.
Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said action was needed to counter Israeli 'settlements, land confiscation (and) encroachments on the holy sites'.
Israel and the United States were not taking part in the meeting, amid growing international pressure on Israel to end nearly two years of war in Gaza.
Despite 'tactical pauses' announced by Israel, the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza will dominate speeches.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said 'this conference does not promote a solution.'
AFP France 24
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Ya Libnan
an hour ago
- Ya Libnan
Trump fires US labour statistics chief after dismal employment report
US President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he departs the White House on August 1, 2025 in Washington, DC. © Win McNamee, AFP President Donald Trump on Friday said that he was firing the head of the Bureau of Labour Statistics after a jobs report showed weakening employment. According to data from the Labor Department, job growth in July fell short of expectations, and recent revisions to hiring numbers showed the weakest employment gains since the COVID-19 pandemic. Washington- President Trump said Friday he has ordered the firing of a key economic official, accusing her of manipulating employment data for political reasons after a new report showed cracks in the US jobs market. US job growth missed expectations in July, Labour Department data showed, and revisions to hiring figures in recent months brought them to the weakest levels since the Covid-19 pandemic. Without providing evidence, Trump lashed out at the department's commissioner of labour statistics, writing on social media that the jobs numbers 'were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad'. In a separate post on his Truth Social platform, he charged that Commissioner Erika McEntarfer had 'faked' jobs data to boost Democrats' chances of victory in the recent presidential election. 'McEntarfer said there were only 73,000 Jobs added (a shock!) but, more importantly, that a major mistake was made by them, 258,000 Jobs downward, in the prior two months,' Trump said, referring to latest data for July. 'Similar things happened in the first part of the year, always to the negative,' Trump said, insisting that the world's biggest economy was 'booming' under his leadership. He later told reporters 'we need people that we can trust', accusing the economic official of inflating hiring figures under former president Joe Biden 's administration. 'Trump is tightening his grip on American economic policy and institutions' 'Dangerous precedent The United States added 73,000 jobs last month, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.2 percent from 4.1 percent, said the Department of Labour earlier Friday. Hiring numbers for May were revised down from 144,000 to 19,000. The figure for June was shifted from 147,000 to 14,000. This was notably lower than job creation levels in recent years. During the pandemic, the economy lost jobs. The employment data points to challenges in the key labor market as companies took a cautious approach in hiring and investment while grappling with Trump's sweeping – and rapidly changing – tariffs this year. The numbers also pile pressure on the central bank as it mulls the best time to cut interest rates . With tariff levels climbing since the start of the year, both on imports from various countries and on sector-specific products such as steel , aluminum and autos, many firms have faced higher business costs. Some are now passing them along to consumers. William Beach, who previously held McEntarfer post at the Bureau of Labour Statistics, warned that her firing 'sets a dangerous precedent and undermines the statistical mission of the Bureau'. The National Association for Business Economics (NABE) condemned her dismissal, saying large revisions in jobs numbers 'reflect not manipulation, but rather the dwindling resources afforded to statistical agencies'. 'Firing the head of a key government agency because you don't like the numbers they report, which come from surveys using long established procedures, is what happens in authoritarian countries, not democratic ones,' slammed Larry Summers, former US Treasury secretary under Democratic president Bill Clinton. 'Game changer' Heather Long, chief economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union, said Friday's jobs report was a 'gamechanger'. 'The labor market is deteriorating quickly,' said Long, noting that of the growth in July, '75 percent of those jobs were in one sector: health care.' 'The economy needs certainty soon on tariffs,' Long said. 'The longer this tariff whiplash lasts, the more likely this weak hiring environment turns into layoffs .' It remains unclear when the dust will settle, with Trump ordering the reimposition of steeper tariffs on scores of economies late Thursday, which are set to take effect in a week. A sharp weakening in the labour market could push the Federal Reserve towards slashing interest rates sooner to shore up the economy. On Friday, the two Fed officials who voted this week against the central bank's decision to keep rates unchanged warned that standing pat risks further damaging the economy. Both Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman and Governor Christopher Waller argued that the inflationary effects of tariffs were temporary. They added in separate statements that the bank should focus on fortifying the economy to avert further weakening in the labor market. Putting off an interest rate cut 'could result in a deterioration in the labor market and a further slowing in economic growth', Bowman said. (FRANCE 24 with AFP)
Ya Libnan
an hour ago
- Ya Libnan
President Aoun says Lebanon determined to disarm Hezbollah
Beirut (Lebanon) (AFP) – Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said Thursday that he was determined to disarm Hezbollah, a step it has come under heavy US pressure to take, despite the group's protests that doing so would serve Israeli goals. Hezbollah and Israel fought a two-month war last year that left the militant group badly weakened, though it retains part of its arsenal. Israel has kept up its air strikes on Hezbollah targets despite a November ceasefire, and has threatened to continue them until the group has been disarmed. In a speech on Thursday, Aoun said Beirut was demanding 'the extension of the Lebanese state's authority over all its territory, the removal of weapons from all armed groups including Hezbollah and their handover to the Lebanese army'. He added it was every politician's duty 'to seize this historic opportunity and push without hesitation towards affirming the army and security forces' monopoly on weapons over all Lebanese territory… in order to regain the world's confidence'. Under the November ceasefire, Hezbollah was to withdraw its fighters north of the Litani river, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border. Israel was meant to withdraw all its troops from Lebanon, but has kept them in five areas it deems strategic. The truce was based on a two-decade-old UN Security Council resolution that said only the Lebanese military and UN peacekeepers should possess weapons in the country's south, and that all non-state groups should be disarmed. However, that resolution went unfulfilled for years, with Hezbollah's arsenal before the latest war seen as far superior to the army's, and the group wielding extensive political influence. Aoun took over the presidency in January ending a two-year vacancy — his election by lawmakers made possible in part by the shifting balance of power in the wake of the conflict. On Wednesday, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem , who fled to Tehran last October said that 'anyone calling today for the surrender of weapons, whether internally or externally, on the Arab or the international stage, is serving the Israeli project'. He accused US envoy Tom Barrack, who has visited Lebanon several times in recent months, of using 'intimidation and threats' in his talks with senior officials with the aim of 'aiding Israel'. Collapse or stability Israel has carried out near daily strikes in Lebanon in recent months, targeting what it says are Hezbollah militants and infrastructure, but the group has refrained from striking back. Israel launched several strikes on Hezbollah strongholds in the south and east on Thursday, targeting what it said were sites used by Hezbollah to manufacture and store missiles. Defence Minister Israel Katz said the targets included 'Hezbollah's biggest precision missile manufacturing site', and the military said it had hit 'infrastructure that was used for producing and storing strategic weapons' in south Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. In his speech, Aoun said Lebanon was at 'a crucial stage that does not tolerate any sort of provocation from any side'. 'For the thousandth time, I assure you that my concern in having a (state) weapons monopoly comes from my concern to defend Lebanon's sovereignty and borders, to liberate the occupied Lebanese territories and build a state that welcomes all its citizens,' he said, addressing Hezbollah's supporters as an 'essential pillar' of society. Lebanon has proposed modifications to 'ideas' submitted by the United States on Hezbollah's disarmament, Aoun added, and a plan would be discussed at a cabinet meeting next week to 'establish a timetable for implementation'. Aoun also demanded the withdrawal of Israeli troops, the release of Lebanese prisoners and 'an immediate cessation of Israeli hostilities'. 'Today, we must choose between collapse and stability,' he said. Hezbollah is the only group that held on to its weapons after Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, doing so in the name of 'resistance' against Israel, which occupied south Lebanon until 2000. Lebanon has also committed to disarming Palestinian militant groups that control the country's refugee camps. A huge Burden for Lebanon Hezbollah's actions and influence are widely seen as a significant burden on Lebanon, contributing to the country's instability and economic hardship. The organization's military activities, particularly its conflict with Israel, have had devastating consequences for Lebanon, including displacement, casualties, and economic losses. Additionally, Hezbollah's political dominance and resistance to international involvement in Lebanon's economic crisis further exacerbate the situation. Here's a breakdown of why Hezbollah is considered a burden: 1. Military Conflict and Instability: 2. Economic Impact: 3. Political Obstacles: 4. Displacement and Humanitarian Crisis: In summary, Hezbollah's military activities, political influence, and resistance to international involvement have significantly contributed to Lebanon's instability, economic hardship, and humanitarian crisis France24/AFP/ YL
L'Orient-Le Jour
15 hours ago
- L'Orient-Le Jour
Hamas armed wing publishes video of Gaza hostage
The armed wing of Palestinian militant group Hamas released a minute-long video Friday of an Israeli hostage held in Gaza looking weak and malnourished, inside a narrow concrete tunnel. The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades video showed an emaciated and bearded man that AFP and Israeli media identified as Evyatar David, seized on Oct. 7, 2023. AFP could not independently verify the video's authenticity. David, who turned 24 in captivity, was abducted during the Hamas attack that sparked the Gaza war, along with his friend Gal Gilboa-Dalal. Both had been attending the Nova music festival in southern Israel. They were among 44 festival-goers seized. Palestinian militants killed 370. In late February, Hamas released a video showing David and Gilboa-Dalal inside a vehicle, watching a hostage release ceremony a few meters away. Of the 251 hostages taken during the Hamas attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27, the Israeli military says, are dead. Israeli restrictions on the entry of goods and aid into Gaza have led to severe shortages of food and other essential goods, triggering international demands for a cease-fire.
