INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
President Joe Biden believes a Palestinian state should be achieved through negotiations, not unilateral recognition, the White House said
on Wednesday after Ireland, Spain and Norway said they would recognize a Palestinian state this month, Reuters reported.Washington&s
reaction appeared to signal U.S
dismay that the three European nations announced an intent to proceed with unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, which does not
exist in practice.White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told a regular news briefing each country could make its own decision
on recognition of a Palestinian state, but that Biden thinks direct negotiations by the parties is the best approach.&President Biden
believes that a two-state solution that guarantees Israel&s security and also a future of dignity and security for the Palestinian people is
the best way to bring about long-term security and stability for everyone in the region,& Sullivan said.&President Biden … has been
equally emphatic on the record that that two-state solution should be brought about through direct negotiations through the parties, not for
unilateral recognition.&Sullivan had been asked if the United States was concerned that other nations might follow suit in recognizing a
would communicate its consistent position to partners &see what unfolds.&WAR IN GAZADecades of U.S
efforts have failed to achieve a &two-state solution& with Israel living alongside a Palestinian state encompassing the West Bank, ruled by
the Palestinian Authority (PA), and Gaza, ruled by the Hamas Islamist movement since it seized the coastal strip from the PA in a brief 2007
civil war, read the report.Israel began an offensive in Gaza after Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel on Oct
7, killing 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages, according to Israeli figures.More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since
then, health officials in the Hamas-run enclave say.Israel is now attacking Rafah in southern Gaza, saying it wants to root out Hamas
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled Rafah since the start of the assault, and the main access routes for aid into Gaza have been
blocked, Reuters reported.Sullivan said he was briefed on Israeli plans to minimize civilian harm in Rafah during a weekend visit to the
region, and Washington will track whether the assault causes widespread death and destruction or is more precise and proportional.&We now
have to see what unfolds from here,& he said.He said aid was flowing in from a pier in Gaza, and that it was wrong for Israel to withhold
funds from the West Bank.The Biden administration also hopes to broker an arrangement leading Saudi Arabia and Israel to normalize relations
As part of that process, Saudi Arabia has demanded the Gaza conflict end and a path to a Palestinian state, something Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu would be likely to find hard to accept.The post US says Palestinian state should come via talks, not unilateral
recognition first appeared on Ariana News.
