A UN conference co-hosted by France and Saudi Arabia aimed at advancing a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians has been postponed following Israel’s military strike on Iran.
The high-level meeting scheduled for next week was intended to lay out a road map for Middle East peace, but has been delayed due to escalating regional tensions, a UN diplomatic source told The National on Friday.
French President Emmanuel Macron later confirmed that the summit would be moved to another venue and date after the strikes forced its postponement.
“This postponement cannot call into question our determination to move forward with the implementation of the two-state solution whatever the circumstances,” Mr Macron said from Paris. “I have stated my determination to recognise the state of Palestine is absolute – it is a sovereign decision.”
The French leader added that Israel has the right to self-defence, but said “it is through negotiation that this situation is to be resolved”.
Mr Macron said that "both the [Saudi] Crown Prince [Mohammed bin Salman] and the President of the Palestinian Authority [Mahmoud Abbas] told me that they were not in a logistical, physical, security or political position to go to New York - so it is just pragmatic reasons".
Speaking to The National on the sidelines of an Arab Group meeting at the UN, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador, Dr Abdulaziz Alwasil, said that Riyadh and Paris are “considering options” for the future of the conference.
The strike on Iran marks a sharp escalation in hostilities, further complicating international efforts to mediate a resolution to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel launched a large-scale attack on Iran on Friday morning, killing top military officials and targeting key nuclear sites.
The Israeli army said more than 100 drones had been launched from Iran.
“We struck at the heart of Iran's nuclear enrichment programme. We struck at the heart of Iran's nuclear weaponisation programme. We targeted Iran's main enrichment facility in Natanz,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an address.
“We targeted Iran's leading nuclear scientists working on the Iranian bomb. We also struck in the heart of Iran's ballistic missile programme.”
Israel's UN ambassador Danny Danon called the strike “a calculated and necessary action based on clear intelligence and carried out in response to an escalating existential threat”.
“We acted to protect our citizens. We acted to prevent a threat that would endanger not only Israel but the entire world,” he added. “We will not sit quietly while our people are targeted, not again, not ever.”
Israel has repeatedly denounced the conference, saying it rewards Hamas for the October 7 attack that started the Gaza war.
