UNITED NATIONS: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday said that Israel's creeping annexation of the West Bank is illegal and the wholesale destruction of the Gaza Strip is intolerable and both must stop. "Let's be clear: The creeping annexation of the occupied West Bank is illegal. It must stop. The wholesale destruction of Gaza is intolerable. It must stop," he told a conference at the UN on a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.
"Unilateral actions that would forever undermine the two-state solution are unacceptable. They must stop," Guterres said.
Meanwhile, France told a UN conference co-chaired with Saudi Arabia that there is "no alternative" to a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.
"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 that he would formally recognise a State of Palestine in September.
In an interview with French weekly La Tribune Dimanche, Barrot said that other European countries will confirm "their intention to recognise the State of Palestine" during the conference, without confirming which.
"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 deploy to help underwrite Palestinian statehood. "Recognise the state of Palestine without delay."
France is hoping that Britain will take this step. More than 200 British members of parliament last Friday voiced support for the idea, but Prime Minister Keir Starmer reiterated that recognition of a Palestinian state "must be part of a wider plan."
According to an AFP database, at least 142 of the 193 UN member states - including France - now recognise the Palestinian state proclaimed by the Palestinian leadership in exile in 1988.
In 1947, a resolution of the UN General Assembly decided on the partition of Palestine, then under a British mandate, into two independent states — one Jewish and the other Arab. The following year, the state of Israel was proclaimed.
For several decades, the vast majority of UN member states have supported the idea of a two-state solution, Israelis and Palestinians living side-by-side. — Agencies
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