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NEW YORK: There is “no alternative” to a two-state solution between Israelis and the Palestinians, France told a UN conference co-chaired with �������� on Monday.

“Only a political, two-state solution will help respond to the legitimate aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security. There is no alternative,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said at the start of the three-day meeting.

Days before the conference, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he would formally recognize a State of Palestine in September.

In an interview with French weekly La Tribune Dimanche, Barrot said that other European countries will confirm “their intention to recognize the State of Palestine” during the conference, without confirming which.

“All states have a responsibility to act now,” said Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Mustafa at the start of the meeting, calling for an international force to help underwrite Palestinian statehood.

“Recognize the state of Palestine without delay.”

France is hoping that Britain will take this step. More than 200 British members of parliament on Friday voiced support for the idea, but Prime Minister Keir Starmer reiterated that recognition of a Palestinian state “must be part of a wider plan.”

The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the meeting “the two-State solution is farther than ever before,” decrying Israel’s “creeping annexation” of the occupied West Bank and “the wholesale destruction of Gaza.”

According to an AFP database, at least 142 of the 193 UN member states — including France — now recognize the Palestinian state proclaimed by the Palestinian leadership in exile in 1988.

In 1947, a resolution of the UN General Assembly decided on the partition of Palestine, then under a British mandate, into two independent states — one Jewish and the other Arab. The following year, the state of Israel was proclaimed.

For several decades, the vast majority of UN member states have supported the idea of a two-state solution, which would see Israel and a Palestinian state existing side-by-side.

But after more than 21 months of war in Gaza, the ongoing expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and Israeli officials declaring designs to annex occupied territory, it is feared a Palestinian state could become geographically impossible.

The current war in Gaza started following a deadly attack by Hamas on Israel, which responded with a large-scale military response that has claimed tens of thousands of Palestinian lives and destroyed most basic infrastructure in the enclave.

This week’s conference comes at a moment when “the prospect of a Palestinian state has never been so threatened, or so necessary,” Barrot said.
 

Jordanian FM: ‘stop Israeli unilateral actions’

Beyond facilitating conditions for the recognition of a Palestinian state, the meeting will focus on three other issues — reform of the Palestinian Authority, disarmament of Hamas and its exclusion from Palestinian public life, and normalization of relations with Israel by Arab states.

However, no new normalization deals are expected to be announced at the meeting, according to a French diplomatic source.

On the other hand, “for the first time, Arab countries will condemn Hamas and call for its disarmament,” Barrot said.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said “we’ve got to act to stop Israeli unilateral actions that undermine the two-state solution, including settlements, land confiscation, encroachments on the holy sites and attempts to change the demographic composition of the West Bank and Gaza.”

Israel and the United States were not taking part in the meeting, amid growing international pressure on Israel to end nearly two years of war in Gaza.

Despite “tactical pauses” in some military operations announced by Israel, the humanitarian catastrophe in the ravaged coastal territory is expected to dominate speeches by representatives of more than 100 countries as they take the podium.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said “this conference does not promote a solution, but rather deepens the illusion.”

Bruno Stagno, chief advocacy officer at Human Rights Watch, said “more platitudes about a two-state solution and peace process will do nothing to advance the conference’s goals, nor to halt the extermination of Palestinians in Gaza.”

SYDNEY: The national congress of Palau has said it “cannot accept” a United States proposal for the Pacific Islands nation to accept asylum seekers from third countries, as its president holds annual funding talks in Washington.
Palau’s national congress wrote to President Surangel Whipps Jr. earlier this month urging him to reject the request by the Trump Administration.
A letter signed by Senate President Hokkon Boules and House of Delegates speaker Gibson Kanai, viewed by Reuters, said the congress strongly supports Palau’s partnership with the United States, but “cannot accept this specific proposal.”
Palau, with a population of 17,000, has a compact of free association with the United States providing economic assistance in return for allowing the US military access to its territory.
“We advise against proceeding further on this matter only because of the practical issues that the introduction of refugees would raise in our society,” said the letter, dated July 21.
Whipps Jr. briefed Palau’s national congress and council of chiefs about the request on July 18, the Palau president’s office said in a statement at the time.
The proposed agreement gave Palau the right to accept or decline each individual referred by the US, the office said.
The US Ambassador to Palau, Joel Ehrendreich told the meeting Palau would not be a processing center like Nauru under Australia’s offshore asylum policy, but would be considered a “safe third country,” and financial assistance would be offered, Palau’s Island Times reported.
Whipps Jr. is in Washington for annual talks about economic assistance, his office said.
“We anticipate there will be additional discussion held with local leadership,” a spokeswoman told Reuters.
Palau was one of the few states to avoid any US tariffs in April.
On July 15, the United States said a deportation flight from the US carrying immigrants from different countries landed in Eswatini in southern Africa, a move that followed the US Supreme Court lifting limits on the Trump Administration’s policy to deport migrants to third countries.
Palau is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.
A spokeswoman for the US Embassy in Palau said it had no comment on the letter.
Human rights advocates have raised due process and other concerns over Trump’s immigration policies that his administration has cast as measures aimed at improving domestic security.