TEHRAN, May 31, YJC - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the Tel Aviv regime should maintain its military occupation of the West Bank under any agreement to resolve the conflict with the Palestinians.
"The idea that we can give up territory and achieve peace is not
right. In order to assure our existence, we need to have military and
security control over all of the territory west of the Jordan
[River],” Netanyahu told Israel’s Army Radio on Tuesday.
Israel
occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds during the Six Day War
in 1967. It later annexed East Jerusalem al-Quds in a move not
recognized by the international community.
In November 1967, the
United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 242, under which
Israel is required to withdraw from all territories seized in the war.
Palestinian
officials have repeatedly said that they want the resolution of the
decades-long conflict with Israel based on the so-called two-state
solution along pre-1967 boundaries.
Elsewhere in his comments,
Netanyahu claimed that the root cause of the conflict with the
Palestinians lies not in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, but
rather the "continued refusal by the Palestinians to recognize Israel.”
He
further noted that the Palestinians are stuck in their attitude of "not
setting up a state but rather negating the existence of” Israel.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - However,
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said recently that the Palestinians
had problem "with the occupation and settlements and the failure of
Israel to recognize the state of Palestine ...The problem is not between
us and Judaism, it is between us and occupation.”
Earlier this
week, US President Donald Trump traveled to the occupied territories and
met with Netanyahu and Abbas amid Washington’s recent move to drop the
US commitment to the two-state solution.
Trump said both Netanyahu and Abbas had "assured” him of their willingness to "reach for peace.”
Meanwhile,
US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley is set make a visit to the occupied
territories between June 7 and June 9, where she is expected to hold
meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
Palestinians are
seeking to create an independent state in the territories of the West
Bank, East Jerusalem al-Quds, and the Gaza Strip, with East al-Quds as
its capital.
However, Israel's expansion of settlements in
occupied lands has dealt a serious blow to Palestinian hopes to
establish an independent state.