The Sultanate of Oman is participating in the High-level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution. The conference, held at the United Nations headquarters in New York, will continue until Wednesday.
Oman’s delegation to the conference is led by Shaikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al Hinai, Ambassador-at-Large at the Foreign Ministry.
The plenary session, held at the General Assembly hall, included statements from participating delegations.
During the session, António Guterres, the United Nations Secretary-General, delivered a speech emphasising that the establishment of a Palestinian state is “a right, not a reward.” He reiterated that the two-state solution is the only realistic, just and sustainable solution.
The conference commenced with a high-level ministerial meeting of the working groups accompanying the conference proceedings. Discussions at the meeting focused on several topics aimed at providing a platform for unifying key visions, highlighting international consensus in support of the two-state solution through political, legal, economic and humanitarian tracks.
Meanwhile, a hunger monitor warned on Tuesday that a worst-case scenario of famine is unfolding in Gaza and immediate action is needed to avoid widespread death, as the number of Palestinians reported killed in the conflict crossed the 60,000 threshold.
The alert by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) raised the prospect that the man-made starvation crisis could be formally classified as a famine, in the hope that this might raise the pressure on Israel to let in far more food. Facing mounting international criticism over conditions in Gaza, Israel announced steps over the weekend to ease aid access. But the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday it was not getting the permissions it needed to deliver enough aid since Israel began humanitarian pauses on Sunday.
It said it would quickly carry out the formal analysis that could allow it to classify Gaza as “in famine”.
For famine to be declared, at least 20 per cent of the population must be suffering extreme food shortages, with one in three children acutely malnourished and two people out of every 10,000 dying daily. — Agencies
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