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Dozens of ministers gathered at a United Nations conference to urge the world to work towards a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians, but the United States and Israel have boycotted the event.
The UN General Assembly of 193 UN members decided in September of last year that such a conference would be held in 2025.
Hosted by France and Saudi Arabia, the conference was postponed in June after Israel attacked Iran.
Addressing the participants on Monday, the Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Faire Bin Farhan Al Saud, urged all countries to support the objective of the conference of a roadmap in the parameters of a Palestinian state while guaranteeing the security of Israel.
In the opening remarks, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, said: “We must make sure that it does not become another exercise in well -intentioned rhetoric.
“It can and must serve as a decisive turning point – the one that catalyzes irreversible progress towards the end of the occupation and the realization of our shared aspiration for a viable solution to two states.”
The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noel Barrot, told the conference: “We must work on the ways and means of going from the end of the war to Gaza until the end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, at a time when this war compromises the stability and security of the whole region.
“Only a political solution to two states will help respond to the legitimate aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security. There is no alternative. “
France intends to recognize A Palestinian state in September during the annual rally of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly, French President Emmanuel Macron said last week.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa called on all countries to “recognize the state of Palestine without delay”.
“All states are responsible for acting now,” Mustafa said at the start of the meeting.
The meeting comes when the War of Israel against Gaza is still raging after more than 21 months.
The war was launched in October 2023 when Hamas led an attack against southern Israel, Kill at least 1,139 And enter more than 200 others as captives, according to Israeli statistics.
Since then, the Israeli military assault against Gaza has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians, mainly women and children, according to health authorities in the besieged territory.
Israel, Boycott meeting of the United States
Despite increasing international pressure on Israel to end his war, Israel and the United States did not participate in the meeting.
The American State Department said that the three -day event was “unproductive and poorly informed”, as well as a “advertising stroke” which would make peace more difficult.
The diplomatic push is a “reward for terrorism,” she said in a statement, and also called the promise to recognize a Palestinian state by Macron “counterproductive”.
Addressing journalists later on Monday, Prince Faisal called for the involvement of US President Donald Trump in the resolution of the current conflict.
“I am firmly in the conviction that American commitment, in particular the commitment of President Trump, can be a catalyst for the end of the immediate crisis in Gaza and potentially a resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the long term,” he told journalists.
Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s main political analyst, said the regional powers seemed to have a limited influence on the situation in Gaza.
“The Saudis, the Egyptians, the Jordanians and others are all unable to affect the situation,” he said. “They are weak and can do nothing for what is happening in Gaza.”
The UN has long approved a vision of two states side by side inside the secure and recognized borders.
The Palestinians want a state in occupied West Bank, in East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, all territories captured by Israel in the 1967 war with the neighboring Arab states.
The United Nations General Assembly in May of last year massively supported a Palestinian offer to become a full member of the UN by recognizing it as qualified to join and recommend the United Nations Security Council “reconsider the question favorably”.
The resolution collected 143 votes in favor and nine against.
The vote of the General Assembly was a global investigation into the support of the Palestinian candidacy to become a full member of the UN – a decision which would effectively recognize a Palestinian State – after having opposed it to the United States to the United Nations Security Council several weeks earlier.
