MESOPOTAMIA NEWS FIRST SIGNALS FROM BIDEN ADMIN TO ISRAEL !
Biden envoy; avoid annexation, settlement activity, terror payments
He was the first representative of the newly inaugurated Biden administration to address the UNSC and to describe the approach of the new White House to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
By TOVAH LAZAROFF JANUARY 26, 2021 19:16 – JERUSALEM POST
Israel must restrain from settlement and annexation activity and the Palestinians should hold back from incitement and terror payments, United State envoy Richard Mills told the United Nations Security Council on Monday.
“The US will urge Israel’s government and the Palestinian Authority to avoid unilateral steps that make the two state solution more difficult,” Mills said.
He was the first representative of the newly inaugurated Biden administration to address the UNSC and to describe the approach of the new White House to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
He set out the Israeli steps the US frowned on, “such as annexation of territory, settlement activity [and] demolitions.”
With regard to the Palestinians the US discourages “incitement to violence [and] providing compensation to individuals in prison for acts of terrorism,” Mills said.
Overall, he said, the contours of the Biden administration’s approach is a two-state resolution to the conflict mutually agreed upon by Israelis and Palestinians, in which Israel lives in peace and security alongside a viable Palestinian state.
This vision is the best way to ensure Israel’s future as a democratic and Jewish state while upholding the Palestinian people’s legitimate aspirations for a state of their own and to live with dignity and security, he explained.
The US believes in active engagement with both sides and that a resolution relies on consent from sides, Mills said.
He noted that the Israelis and Palestinians were far apart when it came to the resolution of core issues and that trust was at a low point.
“These realities do not relieve member states of the responsibility of trying to preserve the viability of a two-state solution, particularly the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” Mills said.
The Biden administration will renew US relations with the Palestinian leadership and the people, Mills said. “Relations which have atrophied over the last four years,” he said.
Biden has been clear about his intent to restore financial aid to the Palestinians and to “take steps” to reopen diplomatic missions closed by the Trump administration, he said.
At the same time, the US “will maintain its stedfast support for Israel. Under the Biden administration the US will continue its long standing policy of opposing one sided resolutions and other actions in international bodies that unfairly single out Israel,” he said.
The US will work to promote Israel’s standing and participation in UN bodies and other international organizations, Mills said.
The Biden administration welcomes the Israeli-Arab normalization deals and will urge other Arab and Muslim majority countries to follow suit.
“We recognize that Arab-Israeli normalization is not a substitute for Israeli Palestinian peace,” Mills said.
“It is the hope of the US that normalization can proceed in a way that unlocks new possibilities to advance the two-state solution,” Mills said.