In his message delivered to the Department of Public Information seminar on peace in the Middle East, in Vienna, Ban said that, although a peace treaty will not be reached by the end of 2008, as planned in Annapolis, the parties have engaged in direct, intensive negotiations, and have succeeded in creating trust and a framework where none existed only two years ago.
He stressed that, “we must not diminish that achievement” and added, the parties' own joint assessment that their negotiations have been substantial and promising is noteworthy. Ban welcomed the two parties’ determination to continue uninterrupted, during the current period of transition, towards a comprehensive peace agreement addressing all issues.
Ban stressed that peace can and must be promoted not only at the political level, but also at the grass roots. He said that 2009 must be the year when preparations will bear fruit in a peace agreement; an end to the occupation that began in 1967, the achievement of an independent, democratic and viable
