{"id":47476,"date":"2022-01-21T16:26:02","date_gmt":"2022-01-21T16:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47476"},"modified":"2022-01-21T16:26:02","modified_gmt":"2022-01-21T16:26:02","slug":"at-least-11-migrants-drown-off-tunisia-in-shipwreck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=47476","title":{"rendered":"At least 11 migrants drown off Tunisia in shipwreck"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nNEW YORK:\u00a0Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki criticized US President Joe Biden on Thursday for moving too slowly to reverse all of former President Donald Trump administration\u2019s adverse policies against the Palestinians and not using Washington\u2019s special relationship to pressure Israel to abandon \u201cits rejection of a two-state solution and peace negotiations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nMalki told the UN Security Council there were hopes that the end of Donald Trump\u2019s administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s government \u201cwould be enough to pave the way for renewed momentum for peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nBut while the Biden administration reversed several \u201cunlawful and ill-advised\u201d Trump policies, he said it has been slow to act, especially on the US commitment to reopen the US consulate in east Jerusalem which would restore Washington\u2019s main diplomatic mission for the Palestinians in the contested city.<\/p>\n

\nAfter Biden took office a year ago, the Palestinians thought the US \u201ccould try to move the Israeli position toward us,\u201d Malki told reporters later.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cBut we have seen that the Israeli position has been able to move the American position a little bit toward them \u2014 and this is really what troubles us very much.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe US \u201chas yet to ensure the current Israeli government renounces its colonial policies and abandons its rejection of the two-state solution and peace negotiations,\u201d Malki said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis is an unacceptable stance that should neither be tolerated nor excused and must be reversed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nMalki said he had \u201ca very open, frank discussion\u201d earlier on Wednesday with US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, including on US-Palestinian relations, the peace process, Palestinian expectations from the US and \u201cwhat they are trying to do in the near future in order to see things moving forward in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nHe said the Palestinians are engaging with the US administration about possible ways to eliminate restrictions imposed by Congress on reopening the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington.<\/p>\n

\nTor Wennesland, the UN Mideast envoy, told the council that six Palestinian men were killed by Israeli security forces, another died in unclear circumstances, and 249 Palestinians were injured, including 46 children, in the West Bank in he past month.<\/p>\n

\nHe said 15 Israelis were injured in attacks by Palestinians.<\/p>\n

\nMalki called on the Security Council to take urgent action to resolve the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict and save the two-state solution, pointing to Israel\u2019s accelerated settlement construction, demolition of Palestinian homes, confiscation of Palestinian land \u201cand even annexing Palestinian land.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAbsent this sense of urgency, prepare yourself then to attend the funeral of this solution, with all the consequences of such a death for the lives of millions of people, Palestinians and others,\u201d Malki warned.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe Palestinian people will survive, but the two-state solution may not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWhat happens then? Will you convert to advocates of the one-state solution of freedom and equal rights for all between the river and the sea? These would be the only options available then.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nMalki urged support for an international peace conference and echoed Russia\u2019s call for a ministerial meeting of the Quartet of Mideast mediators \u2014 the US, UN, EU and Russia \u2014 \u201cas soon as possible to mobilize efforts to get out from the current impasse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nHe said the UN, EU and Russia have agreed to a ministerial meeting but \u201cwe\u2019re still waiting for the approval of the American side.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nHe said the three other Quartet members should convince the US about the importance of a ministerial meeting to move the Middle East peace process forward.<\/p>\n

\nThomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador, made no mention of the meeting with Malki or the Quartet in her briefing to the council, but she reaffirmed the Biden administration\u2019s \u201cstrong support for a two-state solution\u201d and said \u201cthis year offers an opportunity to recommit to reaching a political solution to the conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe US envoy, who visited Israel and the West Bank in November, reiterated that Israel and the Palestinians \u201care locked in a spiral of distrust.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIsraelis don\u2019t believe they have a partner for peace, while Palestinians are trapped in despair born of the complete absence of a political horizon,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\nTo make progress, Thomas-Greenfield said both sides must refrain from unilateral steps that increase tensions and undercut efforts toward a two-state solution.<\/p>\n

\nThat means Israel should refrain from annexing territory, settlement activity, demolitions and evictions \u201clike what we saw in Sheikh Jarrah,\u201d the Jerusalem neighborhood where Israel on Wednesday evicted Palestinian residents from a disputed property and demolished it, and Palestinians should stop inciting violence and compensating individuals imprisoned \u201cfor acts of terrorism,\u201d Thomas-Greenfield said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK:\u00a0Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki criticized US President Joe Biden on Thursday for moving too slowly to reverse all of former President Donald Trump administration\u2019s adverse policies against the Palestinians and not using Washington\u2019s special relationship to pressure Israel to abandon \u201cits rejection of a two-state solution and peace negotiations.\u201d Malki told the UN…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}