‘We want one Palestine’: EU, Arab nations launch alliance for independent state

New York: European, Arab and Islamic nations have launched an initiative to strengthen support for a Palestinian state and its institutions, and prepare for a future after the war in Gaza and escalating conflict in Lebanon, Norway’s foreign minister said.

Espen Barth Eide said “there is a growing consensus in the international community from Western countries, from Arab countries, from the Global South, that we need to establish a Palestinian Authority, a Palestinian government, a Palestinian state – and the Palestinian state has to be recognised”.

Palestinian supporters protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Times Square, New York, during the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly.Credit: AP

Eide said many issues need to be addressed, including the security interests of Israel and the Palestinians, recognition and normalisation of relations after decades of conflict and the demobilisation of Hamas as a military group.

“These are pieces of a bigger 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 laid in place.”

But even if the puzzle is completed, it’s unlikely to gain traction with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Still, Eide believes that after decades of failed or stalled negotiations, “we need to take a new approach” to achieving an independent Palestinian state.

To accelerate work on these issues, Eide said almost 90 countries attended a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly’s current gathering of world leaders. He and Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister co-chaired the session to launch “The Global Alliance for the Implementation of a Palestinian 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 UN Security Council meeting on Gaza on Saturday (AEST).

Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide believes that after decades of failed or stalled negotiations, “we need to take a new approach”.Credit: AP

Norway is the guarantor of the 1993 Oslo Accords, hailed as a breakthrough in the decades-long conflict between Arabs and Jews, which created the Palestinian Authority and set up self-rule areas in the Palestinian Authority. The authority now rules the West bank, but no longer rules the Gaza Strip. Eide said more than 30 years later, Israel’s “occupation” is continuing, and there are no negotiations leading to a final settlement and an independent Palestinian state – which led to Norway’s decision in May to recognise a Palestinian state.

Now, 149 of the UN’s 193 member nations have recognised a Palestinian state. Eide urged all countries “to contribute to universal recognition” and strengthen Palestinian 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 UN Security Council his country, the joint Islamic-Arab ministerial committee, Norway and the European 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 Israel”.

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 opposed a two-state solution. He stressed that work on this initiative would move ahead quickly.

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

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

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

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

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

Eide said he chaired a meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee for the Building of Palestinian Institutions, with the United States, Canada, the EU and many Middle East and European 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.”

AP