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

UNITED NATIONS (AP) ā€” 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, Norwayā€™s foreign minister said Friday.

Espen Barth Eide told The Associated Press that ā€œthere 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 ā€” and the Palestinian state has to be recognized.ā€

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.

ā€œThese are pieces of a bigger puzzle,ā€ Norwayā€™s chief diplomat said. ā€œAnd you canā€™t just come in there with one of these pieces, because it only works if all the pieces are laid in place.ā€

Traction with Netanyahu is unlikely

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, ā€œwe need to take a new approachā€ 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 Assemblyā€™s current gathering of world leaders. He and Saudi Arabiaā€™s foreign minister co-chaired the session to launch ā€œThe Global Alliance for the Implementation of a Palestinian State and a Two-State Solution.ā€

ā€œWe 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,ā€ 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, Israelā€™s ā€œoccupationā€ is continuing, and there there are no negotiations leading to a final settlement and an independent Palestinian state ā€” which led to Norwayā€™s decision in May to recognize a Palestinian state.

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

Eide brought up the alliance again Saturday during his address to the annual meeting of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly, stressing that ā€œwhile cease-fires in Gaza and Lebanon are most urgently needed, ending hostilities must not be confused with lasting solutions.ā€

He again called on the 44 U.N. member nations that havenā€™t done so to recognize the state of Palestine and allow it to become a full member of the United Nations.

And he called on ā€œeveryone who can, to help to build Palestineā€™s institutions, and on regional actors to help embed a political settlement in a broader regional framework.ā€

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 ā€œbecause we feel responsible to act to change the reality of the conflict without delay.ā€

He told the assembly Saturday that the coalition aimed ā€œto promote the two-state solution,ā€ calling on all countries to join the group and to recognize the Palestinians as an independent state.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged all countries to take practical measures ā€œto bring about the free Palestine next to a secure Israel.ā€

First meetings will be in Saudi Arabia and Belgium

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, ā€œbut updated to todayā€™s reality.ā€

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.

ā€œItā€™s difficult,ā€ Eide said. ā€œTheir hands are tied in many ways. Weā€™re seeing an increasing amount of illegal settlements and settle violence.ā€

ā€œBut still, there is an embryonic institution there that we have to strengthen,ā€ 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.

ā€œNone of these tools will solve the problem on their own, and we never pretended that, but weā€™re trying to build a body of instruments that will take us forward to a peaceful settlement,ā€ Eide said. ā€œAnd I am convinced it will happen here.ā€

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