The creation of a sovereign Palestinian state is vital for peace and security in the region, UN chief Ban Ki-moon has said.
Marking the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, Ban stressed that a state must be created for them on the basis of world body resolutions
and the two-state solution.
Israel and the Palestinian authorities needed to resume meaningful dialogue to end the conflict that has panned across four decades leaving a trail of death and destruction on both sides. "It is vital that a sovereign State of Palestine is achieved," Ban said.
"This should be on the basis of the 1967 lines with agreed land swaps and a just and agreed solution to the refugee issue – a State that lives side-by-side in peace with Israel within secure and recognised borders," he added.
The head of the UN expressed concern that peace talks had been stalled for a long time, and underlined that task at hand was to create conditions for parties to come to the table.
"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have publicly committed to a two-State solution, formal talks have been suspended for almost a year," Ban said.
The biggest challenge to this shared agenda is to create the conditions in which the parties have the trust and confidence to return to genuine and substantive talks, he noted.