Document at UN conference on two-state solution calls on Hamas to disarm
The conference in New York was aimed at advancing steps toward a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. The New York Declaration was released on Tuesday by France and Saudi Arabia, co-chairs of the meeting attended by more than 100 countries.
The outcome document says a two-state solution is "the only way to satisfy the legitimate aspirations, in accordance with international law, of both Israelis and Palestinians."
It says the Gaza Strip must be unified with the West Bank, and urges Hamas to end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority.
The document also calls on Israel's leaders to "immediately halt all settlement, land grabs and annexation activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem."
Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said the document guarantees "peace and security for all." He called for support for the text ahead of a new session of the UN General Assembly in September.
With Israel and the United States absent from the conference, it is unclear how much support the document will draw.
Japan's Special Envoy for the Middle East Peace Uemura Tsukasa spoke at the conference on Tuesday. The special representative of the Japanese government said that taking into account the outcomes of the meeting, Japan will "continue a comprehensive assessment of the issue of recognizing Palestinian statehood, including the appropriate timing."
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Japan Today
2 hours ago
- Japan Today
Western countries speak of a future Palestinian state as the nightmare unfolding in Gaza worsens
People walk along a street lined with destroyed buildings following Israeli bombardments during the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi) By JOSEPH KRAUSS Plans announced by France, the United Kingdom and Canada to recognize a Palestinian state won't bring one about anytime soon, though they could further isolate Israel and strengthen the Palestinians' negotiating position over the long term. The problem for the Palestinians is that there may not be a long term. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects Palestinian statehood and has vowed to maintain open-ended control over annexed east Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank and the war-ravaged Gaza Strip — territories Israel seized in the 1967 war that the Palestinians want for their state. Israeli leaders favor the outright annexation of much of the West Bank, where Israel has already built well over 100 settlements housing over 500,000 Jewish settlers. Israel's offensive in Gaza has reduced most of it to a smoldering wasteland and is pushing it toward famine, and Israel says it is pressing ahead with plans to relocate much of its population of some 2 million to other countries. The United States, the only country with any real leverage over Israel, has taken its side. Palestinians have welcomed international support for their decades-long quest for statehood but say there are more urgent measures Western countries could take if they wanted to pressure Israel. 'It's a bit odd that the response to daily atrocities in Gaza, including what is by all accounts deliberate starvation, is to recognize a theoretical Palestinian state that may never actually come into being,' said Khaled Elgindy, a visiting scholar at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. 'It looks more like a way for these countries to appear to be doing something," he said. Fathi Nimer, a policy fellow at Al-Shabaka, a Palestinian think tank, says they could have suspended trade agreements with Israel, imposed arms embargoes or other sanctions. 'There is a wide tool set at the disposal of these countries, but there is no political will to use it,' he said. Most countries in the world recognized Palestinian statehood decades ago, but Britain and France would be the third and fourth permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to do so, leaving the U.S. as the only holdout. 'We're talking about major countries and major Israeli allies,' said Alon Pinkas, an Israeli political analyst and former consul general in New York. 'They're isolating the U.S. and they're leaving Israel dependent — not on the U.S., but on the whims and erratic behavior of one person, Trump.' Recognition could also strengthen moves to prevent annexation, said Hugh Lovatt, an expert on the conflict at the European Council on Foreign Relations. The challenge, he said, 'is for those recognizing countries to match their recognition with other steps, practical steps.' It could also prove significant if Israel and the Palestinians ever resume the long-dormant peace process, which ground to a halt after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to office in 2009. 'If and when some kind of negotiations do resume, probably not in the immediate future, but at some point, it puts Palestine on much more equal footing,' said Julie Norman, a professor of Middle East politics at University College London. 'It has statehood as a starting point for those negotiations, rather than a certainly-not-assured endpoint.' Israel's government and most of its political class were opposed to Palestinian statehood long before Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack triggered the war. Netanyahu says creating a Palestinian state would reward Hamas and eventually lead to an even larger Hamas-run state on Israel's borders. Hamas leaders have at times suggested they would accept a state on the 1967 borders but the group remains formally committed to Israel's destruction. Western countries envision a future Palestinian state that would be democratic but also led by political rivals of Hamas who accept Israel and help it suppress the militant group, which won parliamentary elections in 2006 and seized power in Gaza the following year. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose authority administers parts of the occupied West Bank, supports a two-state solution and cooperates with Israel on security matters. He has made a series of concessions in recent months, including announcing the end to the Palestinian Authority's practice of providing stipends to the families of prisoners held by Israel and slain militants. Such measures, along with the security coordination, have made it deeply unpopular with Palestinians, and have yet to earn it any favors from Israel or the Trump administration. Israel says Abbas is not sincerely committed to peace and accuses him of tolerating incitement and militancy. Lovatt says there is much to criticize about the PA, but that 'often the failings of the Palestinian leadership are exaggerated in a way to relieve Israel of its own obligations.' If you had told Palestinians in September 2023 that major countries were on the verge of recognizing a state, that the U.N.'s highest court had ordered Israel to end the occupation, that the International Criminal Court had ordered Netanyahu's arrest, and that prominent voices from across the U.S. political spectrum were furious with Israel, they might have thought their dream of statehood was at hand. But those developments pale in comparison to the ongoing war in Gaza and smaller but similarly destructive military offensives in the West Bank. Israel's military victories over Iran and its allies have left it the dominant and nearly unchallenged military power in the region, and Trump is the strongest supporter it has ever had in the White House. "This (Israeli) government is not going to change policy," Pinkas said. 'The recognition issue, the ending of the war, humanitarian aid — that's all going to have to wait for another government.' Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in London contributed. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Japan Today
4 hours ago
- Japan Today
How Gaza exasperation pushed three Israel allies towards recognising Palestinian state
People hold flags during a demonstration in support of Palestinians, orgsanised by Palestinarekin Elkartasuna (Solidarity With Palestine), in Bilbao, Spain, October 5, 2024. REUTERS/Vincent West By David Ljunggren, Michel Rose and Alistair Smout When Spain, Ireland and Norway announced in May 2024 that they would recognise a Palestinian state, Israel's closer allies dismissed the move as unhelpful to solving the crisis in Gaza. While France, Britain and Canada stressed their support for establishing two states with recognised borders as the long-term solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, they were wary of being seen to reward Hamas, of damaging relations with Israel and Washington, and of squandering diplomatic capital. "I will not do an 'emotional' recognition," French President Emmanuel Macron said at the time. But as Israeli restrictions on aid escalated Gaza's humanitarian crisis and a two-month truce ended in March, talks began in earnest that would lead three of the Group of Seven major Western economies to set out plans to recognise a Palestinian state in September. FEARS FOR TWO-STATE SOLUTION BOOST RECOGNITION DRIVE "The possibility of a two-state solution is being eroded before our eyes ... that has been one of the factors that has brought us to this point to try to reverse, with partners, this cycle," Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Thursday. France and Saudi Arabia formed a plan to have more Western countries move towards Palestinian recognition while Arab states would be pushed to take a stronger line against Hamas. The pair wanted their proposals to gain acceptance at a United Nations conference in June, but they struggled to gain traction and the meeting was then postponed due to Israeli airstrikes on Iran and amid intense U.S. diplomatic pressure. The strikes led to a pause in public criticism of Israel from Western allies, and Arab states were hard to win round, but discussions continued behind the scenes. Macron, Carney and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer were communicating with each other regularly by phone and texts during June and July, according to a Canadian source with direct knowledge of the events. Canada was wary of acting alone and Britain wanted to ensure any move would have maximum impact, but Macron was more strident. Alarm was growing about images of starving children, and fears were mounting that Israel's Gaza offensive, combined with settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, would further undermine any chance of creating a sovereign Palestinian state. On July 24, Macron made a surprise announcement that France would recognise a Palestinian state at the U.N. General Assembly in September. Neither Britain nor Canada followed immediately. But the relatively muted reaction by U.S. President Donald Trump – saying the statement carried no weight but that Macron was still a "great guy" – brought some reassurance that the diplomatic fallout would be manageable if others went the same way. MACRON, STARMER, MERZ AND CARNEY Macron spoke with Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz two days later to discuss a "sustainable route to a two-state solution", according to Starmer's spokesperson, just before the prime minister was due to meet Trump in Scotland. With Trump, Starmer pressed the case to do more to help Gaza, although, according to Trump, he never explicitly said a recognition plan was on the cards, though Trump has since criticised such moves as "rewarding Hamas". With Trump still in Britain on Tuesday, opening a golf course, Starmer recalled his cabinet from their summer break to get approval for his recognition plan. Britain would recognise a Palestinian state in September unless there was a ceasefire and a lasting peace plan from Israel. Like Macron, Starmer gave Carney a few hours' warning. Once Britain and France had moved, Canada felt it had to follow suit, according to the Canadian source. "International cooperation is essential to securing lasting peace and stability in the Middle East and Canada will do its best to help lead that effort," Carney said on Wednesday, six days after Macron's announcement. In practical terms, the three countries' move will not change much. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio dismissed the recognition as "irrelevant" while its other major Group of Seven allies - Germany, Italy and Japan - have given no indication they will follow suit. More than three-quarters of the 193 members of the U.N. General Assembly already independently recognise a Palestinian state. But the opposition of the U.S., with its veto power on the U.N. Security Council, means the U.N. cannot admit Palestine as a full member - a move that would effectively recognise a Palestinian state at global level. However, Richard Gowan, U.N. director at the International Crisis Group, said the declarations mattered "precisely because we are seeing some big U.S. allies catching up with the bulk of the Global South on the Palestinian question at the U.N.". "That makes it a little harder for Israel to write off the pro-recognition camp as irrelevant." © (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025.
NHK
14 hours ago
- NHK
US special envoy Witkoff visits Gaza
US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff has visited the Gaza Strip, where people have been facing a severe food shortage. Israeli media reported on Friday that Witkoff visited a food distribution center in the enclave. A White House spokesperson had said Witkoff would inspect aid supply distribution in Gaza and hear directly from local people. UN-backed food security experts said, "The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in Gaza." The term represents the worst level on their food insecurity scale. US President Donald Trump said some children in Gaza are in "real starvation." Hamas said on social media that Witkoff's visit is propaganda to contain anger at the US and Israel that it says are causing the people of Gaza to starve. A statement issued by the group on Thursday says it is ready to resume ceasefire negotiations if the humanitarian crisis and famine are resolved.
