UN chief warns Israel rejection of two-state solution threatens global peace

New York: The United Nations chief has warned Israel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rejection of a two-state solution will indefinitely prolong a conflict that is threatening global peace and emboldening extremists everywhere.

In his toughest language yet on the Israel-Hamas war, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a ministerial meeting of the UN Security Council that “the right of the Palestinian people to build their own fully independent state must be recognised by all, and a refusal to accept the two-state solution by any party must be firmly rejected”.

A Palestinian wounded during the Israeli air and ground offensive in Khan Younis is treated at a hospital in Rafah, Gaza Strip, on Tuesday.Credit: AP

The alternative of a one-state solution “with such a large number of Palestinians inside without any real sense of freedom, rights and dignity … will be inconceivable,” he said.

Guterres also warned that the risks of regional escalation of the conflict “are now becoming a reality,” pointing to Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Pakistan. He urged all parties “to step back from the brink and to consider the horrendous costs” of a wider war.

Netanyahu’s rejection of a Palestinian state in any post-war scenario opened a wide rift with Israel’s closest ally, the United States, which says the war must lead to negotiations for a two-state solution where Israel and the Palestinians can live side-by-side in peace. That goal is supported by countries around the world, as ministers and ambassadors reiterated on Wednesday (AEDT).

Uzra Zeya, the US State Department’s under-secretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights, told the council, “A key component of US diplomacy is to pursue a pathway both to a Palestinian state and normalisation and integration between Israel and other regional states”.

“The goal is a future where Gaza is never again used as a platform for terror, and a future where Palestinians have a state of their own,” she said, reiterating the Biden administration’s call on Israel to do more to protect Palestinian civilians.

Family and friends mourn Captain (res) Nir Binyamin at his funeral in Kfar Vitkin, Israel, on Tuesday. He was killed in a battle in South Gaza.Credit: Getty

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov countered that American diplomacy “oscillates between vetoing resolutions about the ceasefire and at the same time calling for a reduction in the intensity of hostilities in Gaza”.

“Without a doubt this serves as carte blanche for the ongoing collective punishment of Palestinians,” Lavrov told the council.

A young displaced Palestinian in a camp in Rafah, Gaza Strip, on Tuesday. The Palestinian toll since October 7 now exceeds 25,000 dead and 62,000 injured, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. Credit: Getty

Guterres repeated his longstanding call for a humanitarian ceasefire – an appeal with overwhelming global support.

But Israel’s UN ambassador Gilad Erdan again rejected a ceasefire, saying Hamas, which carried out a brutal attack on southern Israel on October 7, was committed to attacking again and destroying Israel, and a halt to fighting would only allow the militants “to regroup and rearm”.

He urged the Security Council to “eliminate the root” of the conflict, which he said was Iran.

Erdan strongly criticised the presence of Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian at the council meeting, saying the country provided weapons to Hamas, to Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon and Houthi militants in Yemen, “and soon these acts will be carried out under a nuclear umbrella” and “Iran’s terror will reach all of you”.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.Credit: AP

Iran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons and insists its nuclear program is entirely for peaceful purposes. But the UN nuclear watchdog has warned that Iran has enough enriched uranium for nuclear bombs if it chose to build them.

Amirabdollahian didn’t mention the nuclear program, but he said Israel that it would not destroy Hamas, its stated goal.

“The killing of civilians in Gaza and the West Bank cannot continue on to the so-called total destruction of Hamas because that time will never come,” he said. “Stopping the genocide in Gaza is the main key to security in the region.”

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said Israel was carrying out “the most savage bombing campaign” since World War II, which was leading to famine and the massive displacement of civilians. “This is an assault of atrocities,” which has destroyed countless innocent lives, he said.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza says more than 25,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel started its campaign in October, which has caused widespread destruction, displaced an estimated 85 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, and left one-quarter facing starvation.

Israel began its military campaign in response to the October 7 attacks in which militants from the enclave killed about 1200 people in Israel and took about 250 hostages.

Maliki said Israel didn’t see the Palestinians as a people and a “political reality to coexist with, but as a demographic threat to get rid of through death, displacement or subjugation”. He said those were the choices Israel has offered Palestinians, calling them tantamount to “genocide, ethnic cleansing or apartheid”.

Maliki said there were only two future paths: one starts with Palestinian freedom and leads to Middle East peace and security, and the other denies freedom and “dooms our region to further bloodshed and endless conflict”.

New French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné, whose country holds the council presidency this month, warned that potential for “a regional conflagration is real”.

He said the world should unite and deliver different messages to the warring parties.

Israel must be told that “there must be a Palestinian state” and that violence against Palestinians, including by West Bank settlers, must end, Séjourné said. And the Palestinians must be told that “There can be no ambiguity regarding Israel’s right to live in peace and security, and to exercise its right to self-defence against terrorism”.

But Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the argument that the war was about providing security for Israel was “far from being convincing”. He said supporters of this view never talk about the Palestinians’ right to security and self-defence.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said the “ideology of hate embraced openly by Israeli ministers was normalising the mass murder of Palestinians” and urged the council to stop it with a binding resolution.

Israel must be held accountable for war crimes and for blocking a Palestinian state, Safadi said. “The future of the region cannot be taken hostage to the political ambitions and the radical agendas of Israeli extremists who described the Palestinians as human animals, unworthy of life, [and] who enable settler terrorism against Palestinian people.”

AP