The 193-member U.N. General Assembly decided in September last year that such a conference would be held in 2025.
“We must ensure that it does not become another exercise in well-meaning rhetoric”, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in opening remarks.
“It can and must serve as a decisive turning point – one that catalyzes irreversible progress towards ending the occupation and realizing our shared aspiration for a viable two-state solution”.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told the conference: “We must work on the ways and means to go from the end of the war in Gaza to the end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, at a time when this war is jeopardizing the stability and security of the entire region”.
Barrot told newspaper La Tribune Dimanche in an interview published on Sunday that he will use the conference this week to push other countries to join France in recognizing a Palestinian state.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa – an official with the Palestinian Authority which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank under Israeli occupation – called on all countries to “recognize the state of Palestine without delay”, adding: “The path to peace starts with recognizing the state of Palestine and preserving it from destruction”.
“The rights of all peoples must be respected, the sovereignty of all states must be ensured. Palestine, and its people can no longer be the exception”, he told the conference.
The State Department spokesperson added that Washington voted against the General Assembly last year calling for the conference and would “not support actions that jeopardize the prospect for a long-term, peaceful resolution to the conflict”.
The U.N. General Assembly in May last year overwhelmingly backed a Palestinian bid to become a full U.N. member by recognizing it as qualified to join and recommending the U.N. Security Council “reconsider the matter favorably”. The resolution garnered 143 votes in favor and nine against.
The General Assembly vote was a global survey of support for the Palestinian bid to become a full U.N. member – a move that would effectively recognize a Palestinian state – after the U.S. vetoed it in the U.N. Security Council several weeks earlier.
