Creation of Palestinian state is not impossible.
Washington, Jan 19 (EFE).-
United States President Joe Biden spoke by telephone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday for the first time in a month, and said that the creation of an independent state for the Palestinians is not impossible.
The day before, Netanyahu gave a televised speech in which he expressed his opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a possible post-conflict scenario in Gaza.
Asked by reporters about Netanyahu’s comments on Thursday and whether a two-state solution is impossible while he remains in office, Biden replied, “No, it is not.”
The president went on to say that Netanyahu is not opposed to all types of two-state arrangements and that there are a number of possible options, adding that some members of the United Nations do not have military forces.
“I think we’ll be able to work something out … I think there’s ways in which this could work,” he said.
Biden was also asked by reporters if he would be open to limiting US military aid to Israel because of Netanyahu’s comments, to which the president replied, “I think we’ll be able to work something out.”
Friday’s call was the first between the two leaders since Dec. 23.
The White House assured that the call was not prompted by Netanyahu’s comments on the creation of a Palestinian state, and spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Biden had been trying to schedule the call “for quite some time.”
In a press release about the call, the White House said Biden and Netanyahu discussed “the release of all remaining hostages,” “the shift to targeted operations that will enable the flow of increasing amounts of humanitarian assistance,” and Biden’s “vision for a more durable peace and security for Israel, fully integrated within the region and a two-state solution with Israel’s security guaranteed.”
In addition to opposing the creation of a Palestinian state, Netanyahu refuses to allow the Palestinian National Authority, which governs parts of the occupied West Bank, to resume control of the Gaza Strip following the end of the Israeli offensive.
Both Biden and the European Union have reiterated their support for the two-state solution on numerous occasions since the start of the Gaza war, and have also advocated that after the conflict ends the PNA take control of the Strip, from where it was expelled when Hamas seized power by force in 2007.
Israel and Hamas have been at war since Oct. 7, when an attack by the Islamist group left 1,200 dead and more than 240 hostages. In the aftermath, the Israeli army launched a major offensive on Gaza that has left 25,000 dead according to local authorities, many of them women and children. EFE
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