US stance on two-state solution worrying: French FM
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has criticized US President Donald Trump for dropping Washington's commitment to a so-called two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, describing the White House’s position on the matter as “confused and worrying.”
“I found that on the Israeli-Palestinian dossier... [the US policy] was very confused and worrying,” Ayrault told reporters after his meeting with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at a G20 meeting of foreign ministers in Bonn, Germany, on Thursday.
He added, “I wanted to remind him after the meeting between Donald Trump and (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu that in France's view there are no other options other than the perspective of a two-state solution and that the other option which Mr. Tillerson brought up was not realistic, fair or balanced.”
Ayrault did not provide any information what other option the top American diplomat had suggested.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Netanyahu in Washington on Wednesday, the US president said he would back a single-state solution if the two sides agreed to it.
“Looking at two-state or one-state, I like the one that both parties like. I'm very happy with the one both parties like. I can live with either one,” Trump stated.
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'More Israeli settlements could kill off two-state solution'
Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel censured the Tel Aviv regime for its expansionist policies, warning that construction of more Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories may diminish prospects for the resolution of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“We are concerned that unlimited construction of settlements will... make a two-state solution impossible and could increase the risks of conflicts in the Middle East, including possible war,” Gabriel told reporters on Thursday.
The German foreign minister also slammed a recent Israeli law legalizing construction of settler units in the occupied Palestinian land, saying the measure further complicated the situation.
He underlined that Germany would continue to advocate the so-called two-state solution, calling it “the only realistic option to reduce conflict in the region and prevent the emergency of a new war.”
UN Security Council Resolution 2334 demands that Israel “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem” al-Quds.
It also states that the building of settlements by Israel has "no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law."
About 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.
The Palestinian Authority wants the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.
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