LONDON: Recognizing the state of Palestine is a “strategic necessity” that would mark the beginning of peace in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia told a UN meeting on Friday.
The comments came as the Kingdom and France prepare to co-chair a global conference next month designed to hasten the implementation of a two-state solution to end decades of conflict between Israel and Palestinians.
The effort has gained further support this week as the devastating toll of Israel’s resumed assault on Gaza sparked international anger.
Speaking at a UN General Assembly meeting in preparation for the conference, co-chair Manal Radwan, counsellor at Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry, said that a just solution to the Palestinian question was not only a moral and legal imperative, but “the cornerstone of a new regional order based on mutual recognition and coexistence.”
“Regional peace begins with recognizing the state of Palestine, not as a symbolic gesture, but as a strategic necessity,” she said.
“It is the only way to eliminate the space exploited by non-state actors and replace despair with a political horizon, grounded in rights and sovereignty, ensuring security and dignity for all.”
The high-level conference is scheduled to begin on June 17 at the UN headquarters in New York and aims to urgently adopt concrete measures toward the implementation of the two-state solution.
France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said this week that the conference was meant to rally the world to recognize a Palestinian state.
Palestine is officially recognized by 147 of the UN’s 193 member states and has observer status at the UN but is not a full member.
More than 53,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel unleashed its military operation in Gaza after the October 2023 Hamas-led attack killed 1,200 people.
As the death toll and suffering in Gaza has increased, more nations have moved to recognize Palestine, including Ireland, Norway and Spain last year.
President Emmanuel Macron has said that France would probably recognize Palestine at the June conference and the UK is in discussions about a similar step.
This week, France, Britain and Canada called on Israel to halt its military offensive on Gaza and a remove its restrictions on humanitarian aid.
Israel has recently launched an expanded operation in Gaza, aiming to seize full control of the territory and cut off all aid for several months.
Radwan said that the meeting on Palestine’s future came at a moment of “historic urgency” with Gaza “enduring unimaginable suffering” and civilians continuing to pay the price of a war “that must end immediately.”
“Despair grows deeper by the day, and yet, this is precisely why we must speak not only of ending the war, but of ending a conflict that has lasted for nearly eight decades,” she said.
She said that Saudi Arabia was honored to stand with other nations committed to the diplomatic effort to bring “real, irreversible and transformative change, to ensure, once and for all, the peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine.”
“The only way to prevent the reoccurrence of violence, terrorism and atrocities is to implement the two-state solution, including through the support of a robust multilateral framework,” she added.
French presidential adviser for the Middle East and North Africa, Anne-Claire Legendre, said that a political solution to the conflict was a matter of urgency.
“The June conference must mark a transformative milestone for the effective implementation of the two-state solution,” she said.
“We must move from the end of the war in Gaza to an end of the conflict. Faced with the facts on the ground, the prospects of a Palestinian state must be maintained.”
