NEW YORK: The Saudi-led global initiative to implement the two-state solution has rallied support for the peace process as its member countries roundly condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza.
The high-level meeting of the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution — founded last year by the Kingdom — was held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday.
The event was co-hosted by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide.
It was attended by representatives, including foreign ministers and ambassadors, of almost 100 countries that have backed Saudi and French efforts to end the war in Gaza and bring about a two-state solution.
They overwhelmingly voiced their desire to see peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and laid out a ceasefire, the disarmament of Hamas and the return of hostages as immediate prerequisites.
Many speakers called for the strengthening of the Palestinian Authority through the initiative, and for the PA to serve as an interim government in Gaza in any postwar scenario.
Prince Faisal, opening the high-level meeting, highlighted the importance of the New York Declaration, a detailed roadmap toward implementing the two-state solution that was adopted on Monday by the UNGA.
The document “is a clear mission to all of us to embody this coalition, to affirm the two-state solution and take into account all measures. We can’t have declarations unless it becomes factual work that would be realized on the field,” he said, repeating his call for the PA to be the sole government of the Occupied Territories when the Gaza war comes to an end.
“We’re also putting international measures to monitor in clear time-bound schedules. We’d also like to support (Palestinian) President Mahmoud Abbas, and we’d also like to laud his efforts despite the tough conditions,” Prince Faisal said.
“The Kingdom will continue its diplomatic and humanitarian work in order to help return the Palestinian borders based on 1967 lines, and to have security and prosperity for the whole nations of the area.”
Kallas called on the alliance to redouble its efforts toward a two-state solution, a year after its founding.
Wednesday’s high-level meeting was “happening in a very challenging global environment,” she said. “It’s clear that the situation on the ground in Gaza is catastrophic and unbearable, and it’s reaching unprecedented levels of suffering and death for the Palestinian people, both in Gaza but also in the West Bank.”
Though “our calls and efforts to cease fire have remained unheeded, I saw some optimism yesterday after the meeting of Arab leaders with (US) President (Donald) Trump,” Kallas added. “Let’s hope that there are concrete results from that.”
A ceasefire is “the only way for the unconditional release of all hostages, and eventually, a permanent end to hostilities and end of human suffering,” she said. “If a military solution was there for Gaza, the war would already be over.”
Kallas highlighted EU efforts to “engage with every actor” and bring an end to the war, and said the bloc is “active on all fronts.”
The meeting was chaired by EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas (left), Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan (center), and Aspen Barth Eide, Norway’s foreign minister (right). (AN photo/Caspar Webb)
She added: “We’ve been committed to enhance humanitarian access through dialogue with the Israeli government.
“This has allowed an increase in the number of trucks and fuel reaching Gaza after months of blockade.”
The EU, as the largest humanitarian donor to the Palestinian people, has been supporting the PA with “budgetary and political support,” Kallas said.
“The EU has pledged $1.9 billion to support the Palestinian Authority over the next three years. We’ve also decided to launch a Palestine donor group that will be focused on enlarging contributions and long-term support for reforms,” she added.
“Bankruptcy and collapse aren’t an option if we want to preserve any chance of the two-state solution.”
The global alliance can succeed in its efforts to arrange a two-station solution by “applying both pressure and dialogue,” Kallas said.
“All of us who maintain working relations with Israel must do their utmost to persuade the Israeli government that this war doesn’t serve their interests.”
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa addressed the meeting via a pre-recorded video.
Palestinian representatives were unable to attend the UNGA this year after the US denied them visas.
“I want to thank the Kingdom of for its outstanding leadership, both as a co-chair of the high-level international conference together with France, and as a driving force for this global alliance,” Mustafa said.
“The New York Declaration charted an urgent and irreversible pathway to an independent and sovereign Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel,” he added.
“I think we all agree that the measures outlined in the declaration need to be translated into policies and actions by all the states assembled here.
“We must act more rapidly, more decisively and more collectively for these actions to lead to the fundamental shift needed.”
Eide said the situation experienced on a daily basis by Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank has gone from “bad to terrible.”
He added that Norway had “always wanted to” recognize a State of Palestine, which it did last year.
But Norway’s foreign policy establishment had thought that recognition would only occur at the end of a successful peace process based on resolving long-standing issues from the Oslo Accords, Eide said.
“There have been many years since that there were anything resembling negotiations, and we had to break out of that paradigm and establish a new one,” he added.
That led to Norwegian recognition of Palestinian statehood, and Eide praised the almost a dozen countries — including France, the UK, Canada and Australia — that followed suit over the past week.
“The goal is the same as it always was, but now the tactics have changed,” he said. “Universal recognition is just one of the many recommendations that the global alliance came out with in the New York Declaration when we met in July.
“The idea is that we’ll identify all the parts that are missing, which is of course to work … toward normalization between those Arab states that haven’t done it yet with Israel once Palestine is in place.”
Eide identified all the moving parts required in the practical establishment of a Palestinian state, including security guarantees for both it and Israel, demobilization, decommissioning of all weapons beyond the armed forces, and economic stability.
These are all guided by the New York Declaration, which provides “elements of a plan on how we can move forward,” he said.
“My appeal to you is that we continue to build on this. What are the practicalities? What are the concrete measures that should be taken from now on to do what the alliance is all about, which is to implement the two-state solution for real, not only in theory, but also for real?”
