Path to Peace

This is a defining moment for the international community. The choices made in the conference will significantly influence the prospects for peace in the Middle East. It is essential that leaders demonstrate the political courage and will to support a two-state solution, which remains the only viable framework ensuring a future where both Israelis and Palestinians can coexist peacefully. The world leaders gathering in New York must give peace a chance. What is at stake today is not merely recognition of a state, but the credibility of the UN, the sanctity of international law, and the hopes for peace in the Middle East.

- BY AFTAB ALAM

As Gaza continues to suffer under a relentless war that has claimed tens of thousands of Palestinian lives, predominantly women and children, and left millions trapped in a humanitarian nightmare and with hope for peace collapsing under rubble, the world once again turns its gaze to New York, where the United Nations (UN) is set to convene a high-level conference from June 17 to 20, 2025, to advance the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Will this conference mark a turning point in breaking the decades-long deadlock and bring peace and justice to a region scarred by war and occupation, or simply prove to be another missed opportunity?

The UN conference, cosponsored by France and Saudi Arabia, plans to go 'beyond reaffirming principles' and 'achieve concrete results' towards a two-state solution that has for decades been the primary focus of efforts to achieve peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. France wants recognition of Palestine before pursuing talks for a final resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This would give Palestinians equal status to Israel while negotiating peace. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, has declared recognition of Palestine as 'a moral duty and political requirement'. Many states, such as Spain, Ireland and Norway, which recognised Palestine as an independent state last year, also see the move as a way to accelerate efforts to secure a ceasefire in Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza. The two-state solution proposes a framework for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by establishing two states for two peoples ~ an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.