‘Preventing annexation, resuming direct Israel-Palestine dialogue urgent priority’

AMMAN — The international community’s efforts to achieve a just and comprehensive peace in the region are at risk due to Israel’s decision to annex Palestinian territories, a manifest violation of international legitimacy resolutions and law, Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on Wednesday.

In a statement presented by the Kingdom to the UN Security Council (UNSC) at its monthly ministerial session on the Palestinian cause, Safadi stressed that the annexation decision will “kill” the two-state solution and undermine all chances for peace, calling on “everyone who cares about peace” to refuse and stop the annexation, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

He also urged UNSC member states and the international community to launch effective and urgent action to prevent the annexation, also calling for resuming direct negotiations to achieve peace on the basis of a two-state solution.

"Since the beginning of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the Security Council has issued several resolutions that have affirmed the inalienable rights of the Palestinians, and today all these joint efforts to achieve a just and comprehensive peace on the basis of a two-state solution are at risk," Safadi said.

Preventing the annexation of the occupied Palestinian territories and resuming direct negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis is “an urgent priority for achieving peace”, he added.

Achieving peace and fulfilling Palestinian rights is a strategic Jordanian-Palestinian-Arab choice, he added, highlighting that any other option is considered as a threat to peace and the security and stability of the region and the world.

The statement outlined the Kingdom’s firm stance on realising Palestinians’ rights to freedom and an independent state on the June 4, 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital on the basis of the two-state solution, the sole path towards peace.

The virtual meeting witnessed the participation of UN Secretary General António Guterres and Secretary General of the League of Arab States Ahmed Aboul Gheit, in addition to the foreign ministers of a number of member states.