DUBAI: In a landmark vote on Friday, 142 nations backed a Saudi-French declaration at the UN General Assembly calling for an independent Palestinian state, signaling that Riyadh’s diplomatic push is mobilizing global consensus for a two-state solution to the decades-old conflict.
The vote to adopt the “New York Declaration,” which calls for a two-state solution without Hamas involvement, is the latest step in mounting international pressure on Israel to end its war in Gaza, which has killed more than 64,000 people, according to local health officials, injured tens of thousands, and created famine conditions amid a worsening humanitarian catastrophe.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the UN General Assembly’s adoption of the declaration shows that the international community is “charting an irreversible path towards peace in the Middle East.”
“Another future is possible. Two peoples, two states: Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security,” he wrote in a post on X on Friday.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry welcomed the adoption of the declaration and said it “confirms the international consensus on moving forward toward a peaceful future in which the Palestinian people obtain their legitimate right to establish an independent state based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
