Middle East: UN to convene summit on two-state solution

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) renewed calls on Tuesday for Israel to withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories in the Middle East and announced an international summit for June 2025 to discuss the potential for a "two-state solution" in the region.

In a resolution passed by a 157-8 vote, the Assembly expressed "unwavering support, in accordance with international law, for the two-state solution of Israel and Palestine."

The United States and Israel were among those countries who voted no while there were seven abstentions.

The Assembly said the two states should be "living side by side in peace and security within recognized borders, based on the pre-1967 borders."

Two-state summit scheduled for June 2025

To discuss that prospect, an international conference will be held in New York in June 2025, hosted by France and Saudi Arabia.

"We have decided to hold a conference next June," said French President Emmanuel Macron during a visit to Saudi Arabia.

He expressed hope that the summit would take into account Israel's security concerns and show that a two-state solution can work for all parties involved.

The UNGA called for "realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, primarily the right to self-determination and the right to their independent state."

Macron reiterated that France is prepared to recognize a Palestinian state, but only "at a useful moment."

Statehood 'the most critical test' to UN credibility — Palestinian envoy

Palestinian envoy to the UN Riyad Mansour said: "The question of Palestine has been on the UN agenda since the inception of the organization and remains the most critical test to its credibility and authority and to the very existence of an international law-based order."

It was a UN General Assembly resolution that divided formerly British-ruled Palestine into two states in 1947 — one Arab and one Jewish, sowing the seeds of the ongoing conflict.

The current war in Gaza was triggered by the terrorist attacks by the Palestinian militant group Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023.

Since then, more than 44,500 Palestinians have been killed by retaliatory Israeli military operations, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, more than half of whom it says were women and children.

mf/kb (AFP, dpa)