United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres described the situation in Gaza as “intolerable,” stressing that a two-state solution remains the only way to end the conflict.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly, Guterres said that while he welcomes the growing number of countries recognizing a two-state solution, he emphasized that “nothing can justify the horrific October 7 terror attacks by Hamas or the taking of hostages.”
He added that “nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
Responding to criticism, Guterres insisted that Palestinian statehood “is a right, not a reward,” warning that without it, there will be “no peace” in the region.
“We must recommit ourselves to the two-state solution before it is too late — a solution in which two independent, democratic, viable, and sovereign states are mutually recognized and fully integrated into the international community,” he said.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, argued that recognizing a Palestinian state would amount to “giving a massive prize to terror.”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said recognizing the Palestinian state is imperative now because the prospect of a two-state solution “is receding before our eyes.”
“It’s necessary in our judgment, and the judgment of most other countries in the world, that we have to push on this now, because, as I say, the possibility — in absolute violation of the UN Charter and an absolute violation of international law — of self-determination for the Palestinian people is being erased,” Carney said at the Council on Foreign Relations, a day after announcing Canada’s recognition of a Palestinian state.
“The idea of waiting until all of the conditions are in place for a free and viable Palestinian state” is like “keeping the concept there on the shelf when it is the avowed policy of the Israeli government that there will never be a Palestinian state,” Carney said, pointing to Israel’s expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Carney noted that this recognition is consistent with Canada’s policy of a two-state solution that has been in place since 1947, but acknowledged that there are limitations to what this recognition can accomplish.