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UN chief says US must put more pressure on Israel to end Gaza war
In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera, UN chief Antonio Guterres has said the US must put more pressure on Israel to end its war in Gaza.
“I know the American political life sufficiently to know that will not happen,” Guterres said.
The UN chief said it was, however, important to keep pressuring the US and make it clear that “the two-state solution must not be undermined”.
The message conveyed by Guterres to the US in an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera is that it must intervene, Tamer Qarmout, professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, says.
Guterres is addressing the US as “the only superpower that is enabling Israel to continue its war through funding weapons, arms and providing diplomatic protection”, he said.
The UN chief “says it loud and clear: the US has to intervene”, Qarmout said. “The US administration has been enabling this war to continue for too long.”
Some other main points he made include:
- “I have no power to stop the war. We have a voice, and that voice has been loud and clear to say from the beginning this war must stop. The suffering of the Palestinian people must stop and the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people must be recognised.”
- “The Security Council has systematically failed in relation to the capacity to put an end to the most dramatic conflicts that we face today: Sudan, Gaza, Ukraine.”
- “The geopolitical divide that exists among the major powers has created a situation in which any country or any movement anywhere in the world feels that they can do whatever they want because there will be no punishment.”
- “The International Court of Justice has said clearly and has issued an opinion saying that there is an [Israeli] occupation [in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem], that the occupation is illegal … that the occupation must stop.”
- “We must absolutely reject any prospective annexation of West Bank or the land grabbing or the illegal settlements that move on. The West Bank together with Gaza and East Jerusalem, which is part of the West Bank, must be the state of Palestine in the future.”
Chile files request to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at ICJ
Chile has filed a formal request to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to take part in the proceedings against Israel, the court in The Hague says.
South Africa filed its case in December, alleging that Israel was committing genocide in its military assault on Gaza.
Nicaragua, Colombia, Mexico, Libya, Palestine and Spain have filed formal requests to participate in the proceedings and are waiting for the ICJ to grant approval to join the case.
Chile was among a group of countries that had taken the political step of announcing their intention to join the case, but its declarations of intervention had yet to be filed.
The international court said in a statement that it had received the application on Thursday.
EU, Muslim countries meet in Spain to talk two-state solution
Spain, the host of a high-level meeting of Muslim and European countries, has called for a clear schedule for the international community to implement a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“We meet to make another push for the end of the war in Gaza, for a way out of the unending spiral of violence between the Palestinians, the Israelis. … That way is clear. The implementation of the two-state solution is the only way,” Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told reporters.
Among those attending were his counterparts from Norway and Slovenia, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa and members of the Arab-Islamic Contact Group for Gaza, which includes Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey.
Albares said there was “a clear willingness” among the participants, who did not include Israel, “to move on from words to actions and to make strides towards a clear schedule for the effective implementation” of a two-state solution, starting with Palestine joining the UN.
Israel was not invited because it is not part of the contact group, Albares said, adding, though, that “we will be delighted to see Israel at any table where peace and the two-state solution are discussed”.
