UN chief says two-state support must go beyond words

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a high-level ministerial meeting on Tuesday that international support for a two-state solution must move beyond diplomatic rhetoric as Israeli settlement expansion accelerates across the occupied Palestinian territories. Speaking on the sidelines of the 81st UN General Assembly during an event focused on the Two-State Solution and the Comprehensive Peace Plan for Gaza, he warned that practical developments on the ground are actively undermining feasibility.

Systematic erosion of Palestinian statehood

"For Palestinians and all those who care about peace in the Middle East, support for two states must go beyond words," Guterres said, stressing that formal endorsements have failed to halt destructive trends. He noted that Israeli occupation expansion represents a clear violation of international law, raising particular alarm over construction projects planned for the strategic E1 corridor of the occupied West Bank. Advancing those projects "would deal a deathblow to the prospect of a contiguous and viable Palestinian State," he warned, citing aggressive measures alongside attacks by Israeli occupiers in the West Bank.

International consensus stalls

European Council President Antonio Costa echoed these concerns during the same session, recalling that 142 nations had backed the New York Declaration on the Two-State Solution alongside UN Security Council Resolution 2803. Despite this widespread consensus, operational progress has ground to a halt, with Costa insisting that the international roadmap for Gaza requires immediate implementation as the framework remains in daily jeopardy across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Costa said preserving the pathway to peace demands urgent collective intervention to establish an independent, sovereign Palestinian state coexisting securely alongside Israel.

Guterres affirmed that enduring peace requires two states living within recognized borders based on pre-1967 lines, with Jerusalem serving as the shared capital of both nations. "There is simply no alternative, and time is running out," he said, adding that this remains central to broader regional stability. The high-level event convened on the margins of the General Assembly's 81st session in New York.