New York, Sept. 23 (SANA) UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that “time is running out” for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying settlement expansion and annexation threaten prospects for a viable Palestinian state.
“The conditions for an independent, democratic, contiguous, viable and sovereign Palestinian State are being systematically erased,” Guterres told a high-level meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
He said Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank violate international law and warned that plans for the E1 area “would deal a deathblow to the prospect of a contiguous and viable Palestinian State.”
Guterres said settlement expansion, settler violence, demolitions, evictions and land seizures were creating a coercive environment that displaces Palestinian families and raises fears of ethnic cleansing.
He called for an end to settlement expansion, prevention of annexation, support for Palestinian institutions and a credible political process to end the occupation and achieve Palestinian self-determination.
Turning to Gaza, Guterres called for full implementation of the peace plan and said promises of a better future would remain meaningless without tangible improvements on the ground.
He said Gaza and the West Bank must remain politically, economically and territorially unified under a single Palestinian government.
Guterres said the goal remained two sovereign and democratic states, Israel and Palestine, based on pre-1967 lines and living within secure and recognized borders, with Jerusalem as the capital of both.
“There is simply no alternative,” he said. “And time is running out.
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