RAMALLAH, Sunday, November 29, 2020 (WAFA) - Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh today briefed visiting Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis on the latest political developments in Palestine and the region and called on him to protect the two-state solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Shtayyeh, who received Cassis at his office in Ramallah, said, "Israel is imposing a deteriorating fait accompli in the Palestinian territories through settlement expansion, the seizure of lands, the siege on Gaza and the isolation of Jerusalem, in systematic destruction and continuous violation of international law and United Nations resolutions. The world must prevent this and push to end the occupation."
He called on Switzerland, a believer in right and justice, to protect the two-state solution by recognizing Palestine, and to engage in creating a serious and real political track based on international law and UN resolutions, to break the status quo.
The Prime Minister affirmed the Palestinian leadership’s openness to return to a political path that would be based on clear terms of reference based on international law while taking into account the lessons that led to the failure of the political process during the past 29 years.
"Our relationship with Israel is the relationship of an occupied people with an occupying power, and the international community must play a role to balance this unbalanced relationship in order to reach a solution, and to raise the cost of the occupation so that Israel is forced to end it," said Shtayyeh.
"We must work so that the normalization agreements with Israel are not an incentive for Israel to make further violations and end the two-state solution by intensifying settlement activity and its destructive tools of the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state."
Shtayyeh thanked Switzerland for its support for Palestine and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), calling for focusing the support on youth employment, training and technological innovation projects implemented by the government.
For his part, Cassis affirmed his country's continued support for the two-state solution and his interest in playing a positive role in the contacts between the Palestinian and Israeli parties.
T.R.
