The Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, Tor Wennesland, called for the need to continue work and support efforts to return to negotiations on the basis of the two-state solution to establish a Palestinian state on the Green Line (pre-)1967 borders.

Wennesland expressed his hope to reach with the parties to return to the negotiating table and his readiness to make all efforts required to achieve this and support peace efforts. Besides, he confirmed the necessity to stop unilateral steps.

He warned during the launch of the UN Security Council work to discuss the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian issue, against settlement expansion.

He considered the settlement expansion is a disturbing development, because it is illegal and undermine the two-state solution. Moreover, he urged Israel to stop the settlement.

For his part, the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, affirmed that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian lands is still the longest and most complex conflict, indicating that this issue is the most influential on Middle East interactions at the same time.

Aboul Gheit stressed that the United States played the mediating role for decades on the basis of a settlement formula acceptable to the Palestinian and Israeli sides, which is the two-state solution that guarantees an end to the occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, but this formula has been marginalized, which encouraged the Israeli government to intensify its settlement activity.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Palestine, Riyad al-Maliki, renewed the call for an international peace conference that could constitute a turning point in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, as the Madrid conference did three decades ago, and the launch of final status negotiations based on international references and standards.

Al-Maliki called for the revival of the Quartet of the Middle East and its cooperation with partners and parties and the continuation of the movement in the Security Council.

"Our collective responsibility requires saving the two-state solution on the pre-1967 borders before it is too late,” said l-Maliki, stressing that the current situation on the ground and the lack of confidence and unlawful unilateral measures committed by Israel are the reasons impeding the achievement of peace, but they must to be an incentive for the international community to intervene in a meaningful peace process.

The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad Mohamed Ali Al Nefti, whose country chairs the Security Council, said that "the basis for any solution in the Middle East lies in resolving the Palestinian issue," expressing his hope that the new UN envoy to the Middle East will be able to push the peace process forward.

Al Nefti called for ending the suffering of the Palestinian people, continuing serious work to put an end to the Israeli aggressive policies and end its systematic practices against the Palestinians by killing and displacement, and the settlement expansion, home demolition, and violation of sanctities by Israel.