US President Barack Obama reiterated his support for a two state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, where he criticised comments made by the newly re-elected Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
During a joint press conference with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Tuesday, Mr Obama said,
During a joint press conference with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Tuesday, Mr Obama said,
“Prime Minister Netanyahu in the election run-up stated that the Palestinian state would not occur while he was Prime Minister and I took him at his word that that’s what he meant and I think that a lot of voters inside of Israel understood him to be saying that fairly unequivocally. Afterwards he pointed out that he didn’t say never but that there would be a series of conditions in which a Palestinian state could potentially be created but of course the conditions were such that they would be impossible to meet anytime soon.”He emphasized that the issue would cause difficulties of policy between the States and Israel going forward, saying,
“We believe that two states is the best path forward for Israel’s security for Palestinian aspirations and for regional stability. That’s our view and that continues to be our view and Prime Minister Netanyahu has a different approach and so this can’t be reduced to a matter of somehow let’s all hold hands and sing kumbaya. This is a matter of figuring out how do we get through a real knotty policy difference that has great consequences for both countries and for the region.”See the full video of the press conference here.