Europeans, Arab and Muslim nations launch a new initiative for an independent Palestinian state

[September 28, 2024]  By EDITH M. LEDERER

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — European, Arab and Islamic nations have launched an initiative to strengthen support for a Palestinian state and its institutions, and prepare for a future after the war in Gaza and escalating conflict in Lebanon, Norway’s foreign minister said Friday.

Espen Barth Eide told The Associated Press that “there is a growing consensus in the international community from Western countries, from Arab countries, from the Global South, that we need to establish a Palestinian Authority, a Palestinian government, a Palestinian state — and the Palestinian state has to be recognized.”

Eide said many issues need to be addressed, including the security interests of Israel and the Palestinians, recognition and normalization of relations after decades of conflict and the demobilization of Hamas as a military group.

“These are pieces of a bigger puzzle,” Norway’s chief diplomat said. “And you can’t just come in there with one of these pieces, because it only works if all the pieces are laid in place.”

But even if the puzzle is completed, it's unlikely to gain traction with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Still, Eide believes that after decades of failed or stalled negotiations, “we need to take a new approach” to achieving an independent Palestinian state.

To accelerate work on these issues, Eide said almost 90 countries attended a meeting Thursday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly’s current gathering of world leaders. He and Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister co-chaired the session to launch “The Global Alliance for the Implementation of a Palestinian State and a Two-State Solution.”

“We have to see how we can come out of this deadlock and try to use this deep crisis also as an opportunity to move forward,” Eide told a U.N. Security Council meeting on Gaza later Friday.

Norway is the guarantor of the 1993 Oslo Accords, hailed as a breakthrough in the decades-long conflict between Arabs and Jews, which created the Palestinian Authority and set up self-rule areas in the Palestinian Authority. Eide said more than 30 years later, Israel’s “occupation” is continuing, and there there are no negotiations leading to a final settlement and an independent Palestinian state — which led to Norway’s decision in May to recognize a Palestinian state.

Now, 149 of the U.N.’s 193 member nations have recognized a Palestinian state. Eide urged all countries “to contribute to universal recognition” and strengthen Palestinian institutions so they live up to the expectations of people in the West Bank and are prepared to return to Gaza: “We want one Palestine, not different Palestines,” he said.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide speaks during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, Jan. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud told the U.N. Security Council on Friday that his country, the joint Islamic-Arab ministerial committee, Norway and the European Union launched the alliance “because we feel responsible to act to change the reality of the conflict without delay.”

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged all countries to take practical measures “to bring about the free Palestine next to a secure Israel.”

Borrell said on X that the first meetings of the alliance would be in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Brussels.

Borrell asked rhetorically of anyone who opposes a two-state solution: What is the solution, and can it be implemented? He stressed that work on this initiative will move ahead quickly.

Eide said this new effort is built on the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, “but updated to today’s reality.”

The 2002 initiative, endorsed by the Arab League and the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation, offered Israel normalized relations in exchange for a full withdrawal from territories captured in 1967.

He said efforts started long ago to build the institutions of a Palestinian state.

“It’s difficult,” Eide said. “Their hands are tied in many ways. We’re seeing an increasing amount of illegal settlements and settle violence.”

“But still, there is an embryonic institution there that we have to strengthen,” he said.

Eide said he chaired a meeting Thursday of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee for the Building of Palestinian Institutions, with the United States, Canada, the EU and many Mideast and European countries contributing.

“None of these tools will solve the problem on their own, and we never pretended that, but we’re trying to build a body of instruments that will take us forward to a peaceful settlement,” Eide said. “And I am convinced it will happen here.”

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