UNITED NATIIONS: A United Nations envoy for Middle East has warned that the region is threatened by “a vicious tide of terror and extremism” amid stalled peace negotiations and growing regional tensions.

“The inability to respond, for over 60 years, both on the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people for a state and to Israel’s quest for security, has fuelled a situation that is becoming more dangerous by the day,” UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov told the Security Council .

He particularly emphasised that Gaza remained “desperate and angry” at its forced isolation, imposed by the ongoing blockade, the closure of the Rafah border crossing, at Hamas’ imposition of a so-called solidarity tax, and at donors for “not honouring their financial commitments for reconstruction”.

“There is a clear moral and humanitarian imperative not just for the United Nations and the international community, but primarily for the Israeli and Palestinian authorities to prevent the implosion of Gaza,” he said.

Beyond that, he said the need to support any and all efforts to establish one Palestine which unifies Gaza and the West Bank through legitimate institutions amid a favourable economic climate in which the movement of people and goods is permitted and border crossings are reopened.

“This hard-earned belief in peace and negotiations must not be allowed to wither away,” he added. “If it does, it can further destabilise the Middle East for decades.”

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2015

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