The United States has rejected a UN-hosted conference on the implementation of the two-State solution, calling it “unproductive” and “publicity stunt.”
Far from promoting peace, the conference will prolong the war, embolden Hamas, and reward its obstruction and undermine real-world efforts to achieve peace, the US State Department said in a statement.
According to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, “This effort is a slap in the face to the victims of October 7th and a reward for terrorism.”
More than 1,200 civilians, including more than 40 Americans, were massacred in the attack that Hamas carried out in Israel on 2023 October 7. More than 250 men, women, and children were taken hostage, including 12 Americans. Many of them have died in Hamas custody, while the Palestinian terrorist outfit released some hostages. Dozens of others have still been kept hostages, trapped in tunnels.
Now stretching beyond 21 months, Israel’s retaliation in the Gaza Strip has inflicted devastating human catastrophe. 60,000 Palestinians have lost their lives, the majority of them women and children, in operations by the Israeli military, according to latest data released by the Gaza Health Ministry.
“The United States will not participate in this insult but will continue to lead real-world efforts to end the fighting and deliver a permanent peace. Our focus remains on serious diplomacy: not stage-managed conferences designed to manufacture the appearance of relevance,” the State Department added.
The three-day High-level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution kicked off in New York City Monday.
Addressing the conference, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “at a breaking point” and headed toward a one-State reality marked by perpetual occupation and inequality, unless the international community takes urgent, irreversible steps to implement the two-State solution.
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