2 yıl önce

US committed to 'two-state solution' between Israel, Palestine

Biden administration remains committed to the solution along the 1967 lines "with mutually agreed swaps," says a senior US official, stressing so-called Abraham Accords have no bearing on the conflict.

Noureldein Ghanem

TRTWorld

Palestinian territories, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem, have been under Israeli occupation since 1967. / Photo: TRTWorld

The US remains committed to achieving a two-state solution along 1967 lines for the Israel-Palestine conflict, a senior US official has said, underlining the so-called Abraham Accords are not a substitute for "progress between Israelis and Palestinians."

"We remain committed to rebuilding our bilateral relationship with the Palestinian people, with the US president's [Joe Biden] goal of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict along the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps," said Hady Amr, US deputy assistant secretary for Israeli and Palestinian affairs, on Thursday.

Amr, who was speaking at a discussion hosted by the Washington-based think-tank Arab Center, said Palestine's frustration due to the lack of tangible progress is understandable.

"The [US] administration will continue to look for ways to advance and explore and build a political horizon to move in that direction," he said.

The 1967 lines refer to the truce lines from before the Six Day War, when Israel defeated the combined armies of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, capturing Gaza from Egypt, Golan Heights from Syria and snatching away the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan.

The West Bank is now home to roughly 500,000 illegal Israeli settlers. The international community widely considers the settlements an obstacle to peace.

Highlighting the US economic assistance to Palestine, he said the US has aided Palestine with about $600 million through the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees and has also announced $100 million to East Jerusalem Hospitals Network.

The two-state solution, which Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid supported during his recent UN General Assembly speech, sees wide international support but has long been opposed by extremist Israeli prime ministers and far-right Jewish groups.

Abraham Accords

Regarding the so-called Abraham Accords and normalisation of ties with Israel, Amr said the US wants to see a more integrated Middle East with the inclusion of Palestine.

Echoing the words of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, he said, "those agreements are not a substitute to the progress between Palestinians and Israelis."

"We have been working to leverage the integration of the region to advance progress on the Palestinian track."

Announced and signed in 2020, the accords allowed United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and later Morocco to normalise their ties with Israel.

In an earlier session, former executive director of the Human Rights Watch Kenneth Roth said the US and the West's endless re-endorsement of the two-state solution won't make it remotely possible due to Israel’s illegal activities in the occupied West Bank.

"The two-state solution is great but it's gone," Roth said.

"The prospect of the two-state solution is becoming increasingly remote due to the [illegal] settlement project and the carving up of the West Bank."

The blockade of Gaza from sea, land and air, which goes beyond preventing Hamas from launching rockets, also plays a role, Roth said, adding it's aimed at destroying the economy of the besieged Palestinian enclave.

"Israel complains that it doesn't have a partner for peace, but it never puts forward a serious proposal on the table."

Ex-Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu took advantage and ignored the issue, "pretending the occupation is temporary but never really ending it" which led many human rights organisations to call it "apartheid," Roth added.

"The answer to apartheid is not the peace process, which is pointless, but equal rights. Nobody is pushing that," he said.