برئاسة السعودية وفرنسا.. مؤتمر «حل الدولتين» ينطلق في الأمم المتحدة

Co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France, and with broad international attendance, dozens of ministers are meeting at the United Nations today (Monday) to launch the "International Conference for Settling the Palestine Issue by Peaceful Means and Implementing the Two-State Solution," while the United States and Israel announced their boycott of the conference.

Today, Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan arrived in New York to chair the conference alongside French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot.

The United Nations General Assembly, which includes 193 members, decided last September to hold this conference in June 2025, but it was postponed following the Israeli attack on Iran. The conference aims to establish clear standards for a roadmap leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron announced his country's intention to officially recognize the State of Palestine in September during the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.

The French Foreign Minister stated to the newspaper "La Tribune Dimanche" that he would use the conference to urge other countries to join France in recognizing the Palestinian state.

He added: "We will launch a call from New York to urge countries to join us in a more ambitious and firm path that culminates on September 21," and he expected that Arab countries would then issue a clear condemnation of Hamas and demand its disarmament.

He described the conference as "an extremely important milestone, because through the recognition or declaration of the intention to recognize the State of Palestine, France, alongside Saudi Arabia, which will co-chair this conference with us, has been able to gather historical and significant commitments from all concerned parties, including the President of the Palestinian Authority and Arab countries, in favor of the two-state solution, and to provide security guarantees for Israel."

He emphasized that the only way to restore peace and stability to this region is for there to be two states living side by side in peace and security, warning that "this vision is now threatened, and that is why the dynamic we have launched is extremely important, and that is also why the conference to be held in New York is a significant milestone."

The conference calls on the "sponsoring will" to implement international law not to settle for verbal condemnations at this critical juncture, and for the international community to take responsibility for supporting the Palestinian Authority immediately, to ensure Palestinian reform and strengthen its basic structures, and to develop institutions to ensure security and stability through political and financial support during the upcoming phase.

The conference comes at a time when the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip has been raging for 22 months, with increasing international pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu's government and accusations of turning starvation into a weapon in the war it is waging against the Palestinians in the enclave.

For its part, a U.S. State Department spokesperson announced that the United States would not attend the conference.

He added that Washington voted against the General Assembly's invitation last year to hold the conference, and that it "will not support any actions that undermine the prospects for a long-term peaceful resolution to the conflict."

The international spokesperson for the Israeli mission to the United Nations, Jonathan Haronov, stated: "Israel will not participate in the conference."

The United Nations has long supported the vision of two states living side by side within secure and recognized borders. The Palestinians seek a state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, all of which are territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 war with neighboring Arab countries.

In May of last year, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly supported a Palestinian effort to consider Palestine eligible for full membership in the international organization, and called on the Security Council to "reconsider the matter positively." The resolution received the support of 143 countries against only 9 objections.

Yesterday, Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan stated that his country's co-chairing of the international conference to settle the Palestinian issue through peaceful solutions and implement the two-state solution comes "based on the Kingdom's firm position on the Palestinian issue, and continuing its efforts to support the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, and efforts to achieve a just and comprehensive peace that ensures the establishment of the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital."

He added in statements reported by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) on Sunday that the Kingdom "is making every effort to establish a just peace in the Middle East, and always seeks, based on its steadfast principles, to promote international peace and security through good offices and efforts to end the suffering of the Palestinian people, and to stop the ongoing cycle of violence and the prolonged Palestinian struggle against the Israeli occupation, which has claimed tens of thousands of innocent civilian victims and fueled hatred among the peoples of the region and the world."

Prince Faisal bin Farhan indicated that the conference supports the efforts of the international coalition to implement the two-state solution, which was launched by the Kingdom, the Kingdom of Norway, and the European Union in September 2024, and comes as a continuation of the efforts of the "Joint Arab Islamic Ministerial Committee" aimed at ending the suffering of the Palestinian people, enabling them to regain their legitimate rights, and achieving a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace in the Middle East.