Europeans, Arab and Muslim nations launch a new initiative for an independent Palestinian state
UNITED NATIONS — European, Arab and Muslim countries have launched an initiative to strengthen support for a Palestinian state and its institutions, and prepare for a post-World War II future. war in Gaza and the escalating conflict in Lebanon, Norway’s foreign minister said on Friday.
Espen Barth Eide told The Associated Press that “there is a growing consensus in the international community of Western countries, of Arab countries, of the South, that we must establish a Palestinian Authority, a Palestinian government, a Palestinian state – and The Palestinian state must be recognized.”
Eide said many issues need to be addressed, including the security interests of Israel and the Palestinians, the recognition and normalization of relations after decades of conflict and the demobilization of Hamas as a military group.
“These are pieces of a bigger puzzle,” said Norway’s chief diplomat. “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 when the puzzle is complete, it is It is unlikely to gain traction with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Still, Eide believes that after decades of failed or stalled negotiations, we must “take a new approach” to achieving an independent Palestinian state.
To accelerate work on these issues, Eide said nearly 90 countries attended a meeting on the sidelines of the UN on Thursday The current meeting of the UN General Assembly of world leaders. He and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia co-chaired the session to launch “The Global Alliance for the Implementation of a Palestinian State and a Two-State Solution.”
“We must see how we can get out of this impasse and also try to use this deep crisis as an opportunity to move forward,” Eide said later Friday during a UN Security Council meeting on Gaza.
Norway is the guarantor of the 1993 Oslo Accords, hailed as a breakthrough in the decades-long conflict between Arabs and Jews that created and established the Palestinian Authority self-governing areas in the Palestinian Authority. Eide said more than 30 years later that Israel’s “occupation” continues and that there are no negotiations leading to a final settlement and an independent Palestinian state – which led to Norway’s decision in May recognize a Palestinian state.
Now 149 of the 193 UN member states have recognized a Palestinian state. Eide urged all countries to “contribute to universal recognition” and strengthen Palestinian institutions so that they meet the expectations of the people of the West Bank and are ready to return to Gaza: “We want one Palestine , not different Palestine,” he said.
Eide raised the alliance again on Saturday during his address to the annual meeting of world leaders at the UN General Assembly, stressing that “while a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon is most urgently needed, ending hostilities should not be confused with lasting solutions.”
He again called on the 44 UN member states that have not yet done so to recognize the State of Palestine and allow it to become a full member of the United Nations.
And he called on “all who can to help build Palestinian institutions, and on regional actors to help anchor a political settlement in a broader regional framework.”
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud told the UN Security Council on Friday that his country, the Joint Islamic-Arab Ministerial Committee, Norway and the European Union launched the alliance “because we feel a responsibility to steps to change the reality of the situation’. conflict without delay.”
He told the meeting on Saturday that the coalition aimed to “promote the two-state solution”, calling on all countries to join the group and recognize the Palestinians as an independent state.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called on all countries to take practical measures “to create a free Palestine alongside a secure Israel.”
Borrell said on X that the alliance’s first meetings would take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Brussels. Borrell asked rhetorically to anyone who did so is against a two-state solution: What is the solution and can it be implemented? He stressed that work on this initiative will progress quickly.
Eide said this new effort builds on the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, “but updated for today’s realities.”
The 2002 initiative, backed by the Arab League and the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation, offered Israel normalized relations in exchange for a full withdrawal from areas it conquered in 1967.
He said efforts began long ago to build the institutions of a Palestinian state.
“It’s hard,” Eide said. “Their hands are tied in many ways. We are seeing an increasing number of illegal settlements and settlement violence.”
“Yet there is an embryonic institution that we need to strengthen,” he said.
Eide said he chaired a meeting on Thursday of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee on Palestinian Institution Building, to which the United States, Canada, the EU and many Middle Eastern and European countries contributed.
“None of these tools will solve the problem on their own, and we have never claimed that, but we are trying to build a set of tools that will lead us to a peaceful solution,” Eide said. “And I am convinced that this will happen here.”
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