2024-01-21 08:05:25
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected US President Joe Biden’s claim that a two-state solution in the Middle East, an official Palestinian state alongside Israel, is feasible with him following the Gaza war. “I will not compromise when it comes to full Israeli security control over the entire area west of the Jordan – and that is contradictory to a Palestinian state,” Netanyahu said on X Saturday evening.
US President Biden had previously said following a telephone conversation with Netanyahu, when asked by journalists whether a two-state solution was impossible as long as Netanyahu was still in office: “No, it is not.”
According to the Jerusalem Post, the Israeli prime minister’s office made it clear in a statement that in his conversation with Biden, Netanyahu had reiterated the position that he has consistently held for years. “After eliminating Hamas, Israel must maintain full security control over the Gaza Strip to ensure that the Gaza Strip does not pose a threat to Israel, and this contradicts the demand for Palestinian sovereignty,” Netanyahu’s office was quoted as saying.
Just before the talks with Biden, Netanyahu had rejected a two-state solution that the important US ally was pushing for, saying: “Israel’s prime minister must be able to say ‘no’ when necessary, even to our best friends. ” Biden told reporters in Washington following the phone call with Netanyahu that he thought they would be able to find a solution. There are “different types of two-state solutions”.
Against the background of the Israeli army’s ongoing action once morest Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the political leader of the militant Palestinian organization, Ismail Haniyeh, spoke during a visit to Turkey regarding an early ceasefire and a two-state solution “for a lasting peace.” Other topics discussed at the meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan were the release of the hostages kidnapped from Israel into the Gaza Strip and an increase in humanitarian aid for the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip, diplomatic circles said on Sunday.
Accordingly, the meeting between Fidan and Haniyeh, who lives in Qatar, took place on Saturday. The last official contact between the two leaders was a phone call on October 16 – immediately following Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 and the start of the resulting war.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had offered to mediate between Hamas and Israel since the beginning of the conflict. For him, the radical Islamic Palestinian organization represents a “liberation movement,” while he has repeatedly described Israel as a “terrorist state.” So far, however, any mediation efforts have come through Qatar and Egypt.
On October 7, hundreds of fighters from Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization not only by Israel but also by the EU and the USA, killed around 1,140 people in a brutal attack on Israel and kidnapped around 250 people as hostages in the Gaza Strip. According to Israeli information, 132 hostages are still held by Hamas, 27 of whom are believed to be dead. In response to the attack, Israel declared war on Hamas and launched a massive military operation in the Gaza Strip. According to the latest figures from the Hamas Ministry of Health, which cannot be independently verified, more than 24,900 people have been killed there since then.
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