United Nations (TDI): United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Donald Trump on Wednesday to avoid ethnic cleansing in Gaza after the U.S. president proposed that Palestinians resettle elsewhere and the United States take over the war-hit enclave.
“In the search for solutions, we must not make the problem worse. It is important to stay true to the bedrock of international law. It is vital to avoid any form of ethnic cleansing,” Guterres told a previously planned meeting of a U.N. committee.
He stated, “We must reaffirm the two-state solution.”
While Guterres did not mention President Trump or his Gaza proposal during his address to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told journalists earlier that it would be a “fair assumption” to view Guterres’ statement as a response, Reuters reported.
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Earlier on Wednesday Guterres and Jordan’s King Abdullah discussed the situation in the region, Dujarric said.
Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour, appointed by the Palestinian Authority, told the committee that Abdullah would deliver a coordinated message to President Trump from Arab nations when he visits Washington next week.
“We have no stated except Palestine. Gaza is a precious part of it. We are not going to leave Gaza,” Mansour said.
“No power on Earth can uproot the Palestinian people from their ancestral homeland, including Gaza.”
“We want to rebuild it. We want to put it back together. And we ask all nations to help us in this endeavor,” he added.
“We are not looking for other countries.”
UN Endorses Two-State Solution for Lasting Peace
The UN has long supported a vision of two states living side by side within peaceful and recognized borders.
Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, all territory seized by Israel in a 1967 war with neighboring Arab countries.
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Guterres said, “Any durable peace will need tangible, irreversible and permanent progress toward the two-state solution, an end to the occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with Gaza as an integral part.”
He said that a viable, sovereign Palestinian state living side-by-side in harmony and security with Israel is the only enduring solution for Middle East stability.”
