Reuters, Jerusalem :
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu renewed his commitment on Wednesday to a two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, after backtracking on that pledge during a heated campaign for a March election.
Speaking as he met with European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on her first visit to the region, and a week after his new government took office, Netanyahu said:
“We want a peace that would end the conflict once and for all … I don’t support a one-state solution, I don’t believe that’s a solution at all, I support the vision of two states for two peoples.”
He reiterated Israel’s longstanding demand that any Palestinian state established in land Israel captured in a 1967 war should be demilitarized, and said he hoped to discuss with Mogherini “how we can advance that vision forward”. Although Netanyahu subsequently argued that he had not been opposing Palestinian state in principle, U.S. President Barack Obama said the comments had made it “hard to find a path” back to serious peace negotiations, and told Netanyahu Washington would have to reassess its policies in the Middle East.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu renewed his commitment on Wednesday to a two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, after backtracking on that pledge during a heated campaign for a March election.
Speaking as he met with European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on her first visit to the region, and a week after his new government took office, Netanyahu said:
“We want a peace that would end the conflict once and for all … I don’t support a one-state solution, I don’t believe that’s a solution at all, I support the vision of two states for two peoples.”
He reiterated Israel’s longstanding demand that any Palestinian state established in land Israel captured in a 1967 war should be demilitarized, and said he hoped to discuss with Mogherini “how we can advance that vision forward”. Although Netanyahu subsequently argued that he had not been opposing Palestinian state in principle, U.S. President Barack Obama said the comments had made it “hard to find a path” back to serious peace negotiations, and told Netanyahu Washington would have to reassess its policies in the Middle East.
