UNITED NATIONS, Oct 20: Underscoring that only simultaneous dialogue with all parties in the Arab-Israeli conflict will bring a lasting end to bloodshed, UN special envoy for the region told the Security Council on Thursday that ‘crisis and opportunity’ exist side-by-side every day in the Middle East.
“A serious and systematic search for peace in the region requires dialogue with all the parties in the conflict to ensure that crises are managed and opportunities explored, and that developments on one track are not undermined by developments on another,” said Alvaro de Soto, the special coordinator for the Middle East peace process.
“The international community’s long-term goal is… not only peace between Israel and Palestine, but also peace between Israel and Syria, and Israel and Lebanon… At the heart of the conflict is the problem of Israel and Palestine… In this theatre, a deadly crisis continues in Gaza,” he added.
“The continuing violence in Gaza and southern Israel continues to kill, injure, and endanger civilians. Palestinian militant rocket fire should cease, as should Israeli military operations,” he said, adding that Israel’s operations had intensified following the capture in June of one of its soldiers, although he remains in captivity and rocket attacks continue.
Mr de Soto also said the other issue that must be overcome is the ‘political crisis’ of the Palestinian Authority, whose president and prime minister follow ‘divergent programmes’, and he warned that the society is ‘teetering between national unity one day and civil conflict the next’.
“Acknowledging there was no quick-fix to solving this crisis, he said the ‘route of national unity’ offers perhaps the only solution to stem the slide into anarchy for Palestinian society, which is also facing a major financial crisis.
