Resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains key to sustainable peace in the Middle East as its persistence reverberates far beyond Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, and continues to further radicalization across the region, said Guterres.
That is why we have been repeatedly raising alerts about actions that would erode the possibility of a viable and contiguous Palestinian state based on the two-state solution and that are contrary to international law and UN resolutions.
Those actions include the expansion and acceleration of illegal settlement activities in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as ongoing demolitions and seizures of Palestinian-owned property and evictions.
Palestinians burn tires during a protest against the U.S. Middle East peace plan, in Gaza City, January 28, 2020. /AP Photo
Jerusalem remains a final status issue. The city's future can only be resolved on the basis of international law and through negotiations between the parties, he said.
Guterres called for attention to the human suffering that persists throughout the occupied Palestinian territory, including the plight of the 2 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.
The restrictions on the movement of goods and people to and from Gaza must be eased, with the goal of ultimately lifting them.
Gaza, which is UNder the control of Hamas, ultimately requires political solutions, said Guterres, calling on Palestinian leaders to engage constructively with Egypt and others to advance intra-Palestinian reconciliation.
U.S. President Donald Trump (R) UNveils the U.S. Middle East peace plan alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the East Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., January 28, 2020. /AP Photo
The holding of long-overdue general elections in the state of Palestine, including East Jerusalem, will be a crucial step toward giving renewed legitimacy to national institutions and reUNiting the Palestinian people UNder a single, legitimate and democratic Palestinian national government, he said.
Guterres also asked member states to ensure reliable fUNding for the UN agency for Palestine refugees.
The UN chief presided over this year's first meeting of the committee, which was established by the UN General Assembly in 1975. Cheikh Niang, the permanent representative of Senegal to the UNited Nations, was elected chair of the committee.
A draft UN Security CoUNcil resolution on Tuesday condemned an Israeli plan to annex its settlements in the West Bank in a rebuke of Trump's pro-Israel peace proposal.
The draft text, circulated to coUNcil members by TUNisia and Indonesia, would seemingly face a U.S. veto, but nonetheless offered some members' dim view of the peace plan that Trump rolled out last week with great fanfare.
Diplomats said negotiations on the text would likely begin later this week. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to speak to the coUNcil next week about the plan, possibly coinciding with a vote on the draft resolution.
Palestine hails support of EU, AU
Palestine on Tuesday praised the EU and the African UNion (AU) for their support of Palestine's rejection of the U.S. Middle East peace plan.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki praised the statements of the EU's High Representative Josep Borrell and chairperson of the AU Commission Moussa Faki, in which they rejected the American peace plan, also known as the Deal of the Century.
A Palestinian man sprays paint to cover a logo of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in protest of U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan, in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, February 4, 2020. /Reuters Photo
In his statement released earlier in the day, Borrell said the EU is committed to a negotiated two-state solution based on the 1967 borders, with equivalent land swaps and a viable, contiguous Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace.
In the statement issued on Monday, Faki said he notes that the recent U.S.-Israeli plan was drawn up without any form of consultation with the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people.
The AU's statement, released right ahead of its upcoming summit in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa on SUNday, could lead to the organization's collective rejection of the U.S. plan, Maliki noted.
It is worth noting that the 22-member Arab League issued on SUNday a statement supporting the Palestinian rejection of the plan.
Categorically rejecting the U.S. plan, Palestinians have said they will laUNch a diplomatic campaign to topple it.
(Cover: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (R) meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the UN headquarters in New York, the U.S., February 20, 2018. /AP Photo)
(CGTN)