UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called on world leaders attending the upcoming UN conference in New York to "keep the two-state solution alive" and to take steps toward its actual implementation.
At a press conference in New York on Thursday, Guterres said, "The international community must not only support the solution of an Israeli and Palestinian state living side by side in peace, but also work to create the conditions that will make it possible."
The conference, scheduled for June 17–20 at UN headquarters in New York, is being held at the initiative of the UN General Assembly. It will feature political positions from around the world in an effort to advance an end to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. France and Saudi Arabia, which are jointly chairing the event, are spearheading the initiative. Among the expected participants are French President Emmanuel Macron and other senior officials. Israel has already announced it will not take part.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the idea of establishing a Palestinian state, a stance that was formally enshrined in a Knesset resolution passed by a wide margin last year. Israel has repeatedly made clear that the creation of a Palestinian state would be seen as "a reward for terrorism" in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7.
Jonathan Heronoff, spokesman for the Israeli mission to the UN, explained Israel's decision to boycott the event: "We will not participate in a conference that does not first and urgently address the need to condemn Hamas and secure the return of all hostages still held in Gaza, hostages who were brutally abducted during the massacre carried out by Hamas against 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals on October 7, 2023."
The conference is expected to become yet another international platform for mounting pressure on Israel to adopt the two-state solution, despite Israel's firm opposition at this stage, as long as the Hamas issue and the return of the hostages remain unresolved.
