United Nations: US Ambassador Nikki Haley on Thursday rejected suggestions that the United States was abandoning the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying Washington “absolutely” supports the policy but wants fresh ideas on how to move forward.
“Anybody that wants to say the United States does not support the two-state solution, that would be an error,” Haley told reporters at the United Nations.
“We absolutely support a two-state solution, but we are thinking out-of-the-box as well,” Haley said following a Security Council meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Her remarks appeared to temper those of President Donald Trump, who on Wednesday announced that the United States would not insist on a two-state solution to the conflict.
“I’m looking at two-state and one-state, and I like the one that both parties like,” Trump said at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
That statement was seen as a break from previous US policy and from the international consensus on recognition of a Palestinian state as part of a final Middle East peace deal.
Haley said the United States wants to help bring Israelis and Palestinians “at the table to have them talk through this in a fresh way, to say ‘okay we’re going back to the drawing board: what can we agree on?’”.
In Washington, Trump’s nominee to become US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, said he was sceptical that a two-state solution was feasible but he did not rule it out.
Haley repeated her statement of US support to the two-state solution three times in response to questions from journalists and said the US administration would be unbiased in its peace efforts.
The ambassador described as a “terrible mistake” a council resolution adopted in the final weeks of former president Barack Obama’s administration demanding an end to Israeli colony building on occupied Palestinian territory.
During the council meeting, the UN envoy for the Middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov, insisted that the two-state solution remains the only way to meet the aspirations of the Palestinians and Israelis.
Britain, France and Sweden reaffirmed their support for Palestinian statehood as part of a final deal.
“It is very dangerous to move away from the two-state solution idea, especially before you have something viable as an alternative,” Sweden’s Ambassador Olof Skoog warned. Sweden has recognized Palestinian statehood.
Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour said the council had reaffirmed its support for the two-state solution and that there was “no need to reinvent the wheel” in the peace process.
French Ambassador Francois Delattre echoed Mladenov’s comments.
