Statement on the upcoming international conference on the implementation of the Two-State Solution
Permanent Representative of Iceland to the United Nations
Intergovernmental consultations on the High-Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution
9 April 2025
Our thanks to Saudi-Arabia and France for convening this meeting. Iceland strongly supports the work underway by the co-chairs.
Iceland welcomes the upcoming high-level conference on the two-state solution in June and the work strands for preparations over the next weeks. The international community must refocus its attention on the issue if there is to be hope for a peaceful resolution.
There is no other way out then a hard stop to the indiscriminate violence, terrorism and occupation. No way out, for either Israelis or Palestinians, except through a sustainable, two-state peace plan.
As we meet here today, Gaza is a place of death and destruction, with everything reduced to ruins. A population of two million is desperate and hungry. Many have been repeatedly displaced for eighteen months. Meanwhile, the West Bank has experienced the heaviest military infiltration by Israeli troops for over twenty years.
International law and international humanitarian law have repeatedly been violated. Iceland has repeatedly voiced its condemnation and frustration with this and called on Israel, and all other parties to the conflict, to adhere to international law. This includes respecting UNRWA’s mandate and immunity, as referred to here earlier by the Ambassador of Luxembourg, unhindered humanitarian access into Gaza, which must be granted immediately, and protection of humanitarian staff.
We’ve repeatedly condemned Hamas’s horrendous attack of 7 October 2023 and called for the immediate release of the remaining hostages.
Co-chairs,
Under these circumstances, it is easy to lose hope. It is easy to lose faith in getting back to the seemingly lost path to peace.
Violence begets violence. More pain and suffering beget more generational trauma and hatred. We seem to be stuck in a vicious, self-destructive downward spiral.
The peoples of Palestine and Israel deserve nothing less than living in peace and security – side by side – in sovereign states, mutually recognized by each other and us all.
Co-chairs,
Iceland remains committed to continue the work with you and I thank you.