India said an early return to the political course by launching credible direct negotiations between Israel and Palestine on all final status issues is an immediate requirement and stressed that the absence of direct talks between the sides is not conducive to securing long-term peace.
“We call upon parties to refrain from any unilateral action that unduly alters the status-quo on the ground and undercuts the viability of the two-State solution. We need to urgently build on the recent positive developments and not slide back,” India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador TS Tirumurti said.
Speaking at the UN Security Council monthly meeting on the Question of Palestine on Tuesday, he said the focus must be on addressing the urgent security and economic challenges, including the precarious financial situation of the Palestinian Authority, and charting a concrete path for discussing key political issues.
“An early return to the political course by launching credible direct negotiations on all final status issues is an immediate requirement. The absence of direct talks between the sides on these issues is not conducive to securing long-term peace,” he said.
He noted that resolution 2334 was adopted by the Council to reaffirm the international community’s firm commitment to preventing the erosion of the two-State solution. It calls upon parties to prevent all acts of violence against civilians, to refrain from provocative acts of incitement and inflammatory rhetoric and stresses that all settlement activities must cease.
India has been supporting Palestinian nation-building and capacity-building efforts under the India-Palestine developmental partnership for over three decades now.