by Times of Israel Staff and News Agencies
In final, wide-ranging UN address, US president also says Palestinians must reject incitement, recognize ‘legitimacy of Israel’
 |
| US president Barack Obama addresses the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters, September 20, 2016 in New York City (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File) |
US President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that while the Palestinians should reject terror and incitement, Israel must recognize that it cannot “permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land.”
“Surely
Israelis and Palestinians will be better off if Palestinians reject
incitement and recognize the legitimacy of Israel. But Israel must
recognize that it cannot permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land.
We all have to do better,” the US president said at the 71st session of
the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
In his wide-ranging address, Obama sought to
use his last appearance before the global body to define how his
leadership had put the world on a better trajectory over the last eight
years. At the heart of that approach, Obama said, is the notion that
conflicts are best solved when nations cooperate.
The president cited his administration’s
outreach to former adversaries Cuba and Myanmar as key examples of
progress. He also cited the resolution last year “of the Iranian nuclear
issue through diplomacy” as a key achievement over the past eight
years.
In his address, Obama spoke of a “less
violent” and “more prosperous” world but one rife with “uncertainty,
unease and strife,” as nations struggle with a devastating refugee
crisis, terrorism and a breakdown of order in the Middle East.
“Despite enormous progress, governing has
become more difficult, and tensions are more quick to surface,” he said,
adding that the world now faces a choice, to “press forward with a
better model for cooperation and integration, or retreat into a world
that is sharply divided.”
“This is the paradox that defines the world today,” Obama said. “We must go forward, and not backward.”
The US president also conceded that
“bloodletting” throughout the Middle East will not be easily resolved
and insisted the Syrian civil war could only be ended through diplomacy.
“The mindset of sectarianism and extremism and
bloodletting that has been taking place [in the Middle East] will not
be quickly reversed,” Obama said adding that “no external force is going
to force communities to coexist,” and that the international community
must “work with those who seek to build, rather than destroy.”
In Syria, where the civil war has claimed the
lives of over 300,000 people, Obama said that there was “no ultimate
military victory to be won,” and that the world must pursue the “hard
work of diplomacy and humanitarian assistance.”
He added that the there was a was a “military
component – it means being united and relentless against ISIL [the
Islamic State terror group].”
In a subtle reference to Republican nominee
Donald Trump, Obama also bemoaned how terrorist networks had spread
their ideology on social media, spurring anger toward “innocent
immigrants and Muslims.”
“We must reject any forms of fundamentalism,
or racism or a belief in ethnic superiority” that is “irreconcilable
with modernity,” said Obama.
Earlier on Tuesday, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon told the UN General Assembly that
the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be a
two-state solution, and that the one-state option would “spell doom” for
both sides.
“This is madness. Replacing a two-state
solution with a one-state construct would spell doom: denying
Palestinians their freedom and rightful future, and pushing Israel
further from its vision of a Jewish democracy towards greater global
isolation,” said Ban.
Times of Israel Staff and News Agencies
Source: http://www.timesofisrael.com/obama-israel-cannot-permanently-occupy-settle-palestinian-land/
Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
No comments:
Post a Comment