UN Security Council calls for comprehensive Mideast peace with a Palestinian state

UN Security Council calls for a Palestinian state

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council sent a strong message to Israel on Monday that the international community is demanding “urgent efforts” to create a separate Palestinian state and achieve an overall Mideast peace settlement.

The council statement was approved by all 15 members a week before Israel’s new hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has refused to endorse the two-state solution, holds his first meeting in Washington with President Barack Obama.

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, speaking at a ministerial meeting of the council as a member of Obama’s Cabinet, underscored the president’s determination to vigorously pursue “a comprehensive peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors” in the months ahead.

Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gabriela Shalev objected to the meeting, saying Israel doesn’t believe the involvement of the Security Council contributes to the political process in the Middle East and calling the timing “inappropriate” because of Netanyahu’s upcoming visit and the government’s ongoing policy review.

“This process should be bilateral and left to the parties themselves,” Shalev said in a statement.

But Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia, which holds the council presidency this month and organized Monday’s meeting, stressed the importance of a rapid resumption of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and of international involvement in the process, a view echoed by Rice and council members.

The council reiterated its call for “renewed and urgent efforts by the parties and the international community ” to reach a Mideast peace agreement “based on the vision of a region where two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, will live side by side in peace,” according to its statement.

Lavrov said the council wanted to ensure that the two-state solution — which is enshrined in legally binding council resolutions — was “clearly reaffirmed” and “that the resumption of talks should not go back to square one,” he said.

While Israel’s previous government, led by Prime Minster Ehud Olmert, was committed to the goal of Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in peaceful independent states, Netanyahu has expressed misgivings about an independent Palestinian state.

In the six weeks since he became prime minister, Netanyahu has pointed to Hamas’ takeover of Gaza as a precedent and warned that turning over land to the Palestinians can bring violent extremists to power and endanger Israel.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner deplored the lack of progress in the region so far, as evidenced by the continuing Israeli blockade in reconstruction aid for Gaza.

“There is no lasting cease-fire there and rocket launches continue,” Kouchner said. “For us the window of opportunity is one that can be calculated in terms of months, not years.”

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. observer, said: “It is high time for the international community to shift gears and to tell Israel that there will be consequences if you do not respect and abide by the international consensus and by all previous commitments and obligations.”

While the Security Council took a strong tone with Israel, it also had a message for the Palestinians.

It urged Palestinian factions to take “tangible steps” toward reconciliation, such as renouncing violence, respecting past commitments and recognizing Israel — the last of which Hamas refuses to do.

The council backed the long-stalled road map to Mideast peace drafted in 2003 by the Quartet Mideast peacemakers — the U.S., Russia, the U.N. and the European Union — which outlined simultaneous steps for Israel and the Palestinians to establish a Palestinian state.

The council also backed the Arab peace initiative launched in 2002 that calls for Arab recognition of the Jewish state in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from all lands captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said both sides must take steps to achieve peace.

“Violence and terror will not bring the Palestinians statehood and dignity,” he said, “and settlement expansion and closure will not bring Israel security or peace.”

(This version CORRECTS RECASTS and UPDATES with new quotes from US, Palestinians and Russia; corrects that Netanyahu has been in office for six weeks)