• The Kingdom and France prepare to co-chair conference next month designed to hasten implementation of two-state solution
• Foreign ministry’s Manal Radwan tells preparatory meeting recognizing Palestine would mark beginning of peace in the Middle East

Jonathan Lessware

LONDON: Recognizing the state of Palestine is a “strategic necessity” that would mark the beginning of peace in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia told a UN meeting on Friday.

The comments come as the Kingdom and France prepare to co-chair a global conference next month designed to hasten the implementation of a two-state solution to end decades of conflict between Israel and Palestinians.

The effort has gained further support this week as the devastating toll of Israel’s resumed assault on Gaza sparked further international anger.

Speaking at a UN General Assembly meeting in preparation for the conference, co-chair Manal Radwan, counsellor at Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry, said a just solution to the Palestinian question is not only a moral and legal imperative, but “the cornerstone of a new regional order based on mutual recognition and coexistence.”

She said: “Regional peace begins with recognizing the state of Palestine, not as a symbolic gesture, but as a strategic necessity.

“It is the only way to eliminate the space exploited by non-state actors and replace despair with a political horizon, grounded in rights and sovereignty, ensuring security and dignity for all.”

Radwan described the meeting as a moment of “historic urgency” with Gaza “enduring unimaginable suffering” and civilians continuing to pay the price of a war “that must end immediately.”

She said Saudi Arabia was honored to stand with other nations committed to the diplomatic effort to bring “real, irreversible, and transformative change, to ensure, once and for all, the peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine.”