Europeans, Arab and Muslim nations launch a new initiative for an independent Palestinian state

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Europeans, ***** and ******* nations launch a new initiative for an independent ************ state

******* NATIONS (AP) — *********, ***** and Islamic nations have launched an initiative to strengthen support for a ************ state and its institutions, and prepare for a future after the

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

and escalating conflict in Lebanon, Norway’s foreign minister said Friday.

Espen Barth Eide told The Associated Press that “there is a growing consensus in the international community from Western countries, from ***** countries, from the Global South, that we need to establish a ************ Authority, a ************ government, a ************ state — and the

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.”

Eide said many issues need to be addressed, including the security interests of ******* and the Palestinians, recognition and normalization of relations after decades of conflict and the demobilization of

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

“These are pieces of a ******* puzzle,” Norway’s chief diplomat said. “And you can’t just come in there with one of these pieces, because it only works if all the pieces are ***** in place.”

But even if the puzzle is completed, it’s

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Still, Eide believes that after decades of ******* or stalled negotiations, “we need to take a new approach” to achieving an independent ************ state.

To accelerate work on these issues, Eide said almost 90 countries attended a meeting Thursday on the sidelines of the

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

of world leaders. He and Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister co-chaired the session to launch “The Global Alliance for the Implementation of a ************ State and a Two-State Solution.”

“We have to see how we can come out of this deadlock and try to use this deep crisis also as an opportunity to move forward,” Eide told a U.N. Security Council meeting on Gaza later Friday.

Norway is the guarantor of the 1993 Oslo Accords, hailed as a breakthrough in the decades-long conflict between ****** and Jews, which created the ************ Authority and set up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

. Eide said more than 30 years later, *******’s “occupation” is continuing, and there there are no negotiations leading to a final settlement and an independent ************ state — which led to Norway’s decision in May to

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

Now, 149 of the U.N.’s 193 member nations have recognized a ************ state. Eide urged all countries “to contribute to universal recognition” and strengthen ************ institutions so they live up to the expectations of people in the West Bank and are prepared to return to Gaza: “We want one Palestine, not different Palestines,” he said.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud told the U.N. Security Council on Friday that his country, the ****** Islamic-***** ministerial committee, Norway and the ********* Union launched the alliance “because we feel responsible to act to change the reality of the conflict without delay.”

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged all countries to take practical measures “to bring about the free Palestine next to a secure *******.”

Borrell said on X that the first meetings of the alliance would be in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Brussels.

Borrell asked rhetorically of anyone who

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

: What is the solution, and can it be implemented? He stressed that work on this initiative will move ahead quickly.

Eide said this new effort is built on the 2002 ***** Peace Initiative, “but updated to today’s reality.”

The 2002 initiative, endorsed by the ***** League and the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation, offered ******* normalized relations in exchange for a full withdrawal from territories captured in 1967.

He said efforts started long ago to build the institutions of a ************ state.

“It’s difficult,” Eide said. “Their hands are tied in many ways. We’re seeing an increasing amount of ******** settlements and settle *********.”

“But still, there is an embryonic institution there that we have to strengthen,” he said.

Eide said he chaired a meeting Thursday of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee for the Building of ************ Institutions, with the ******* States, Canada, the EU and many ******** and ********* countries contributing.

“None of these tools will solve the problem on their own, and we never pretended that, but we’re trying to build a body of instruments that will take us forward to a peaceful settlement,” Eide said. “And I am convinced it will happen here.”

___

See more of AP’s coverage of the U.N. General Assembly at

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Europeans #***** #******* #nations #launch #initiative #independent #************ #state

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up