Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

Singapore backs two-state solution for ‘just and durable’ peace

SINGAPORE – Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Monday (Feb 20) reiterated his hopes for Israel and Palestine to resume direct negotiations, while adding that a two-state solution is the only way to bring “just and durable” peace.

Dinner hosted by PM Lee Hsien Loong for Mr Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in Singapore on Feb 20, 2017. Photo: Nuria Ling/TODAY

Dinner hosted by PM Lee Hsien Loong for Mr Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in Singapore on Feb 20, 2017. Photo: Nuria Ling/TODAY

Follow TODAY on WhatsApp

SINGAPORE – Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Monday (Feb 20) reiterated his hopes for Israel and Palestine to resume direct negotiations, while adding that a two-state solution is the only way to bring “just and durable” peace.

“We have consistently believed that a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine, however hard to achieve, is the only way to bring peace and security to both peoples,” he said during a joint press briefing with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Istana in the afternoon.

“I told the Prime Minister in Israel last year. We still hold that view.”

Mr Lee said that Mr Netanyahu updated him on “developments and his reasons for being cautiously optimistic about things”.

“And I explained Singapore’s position again, and expressed my hope for peace between Israel and Palestine, which will contribute to a stabler Middle East and a stabler world.”

Addressing the Israel-Palestine issue during an official dinner hosted by Mr Lee in the evening, Mr Netanyahu said Israel is committed to peace in the Middle East. “I sense a great change in the Arab world, in many Arab countries and I hope ... to be able to use that new-found attitude towards Israel to help us solve the Palestinian Israeli conflict as well,” he said.

Mr Netanyahu’s visit to Singapore is a reciprocal visit following Mr Lee’s trip to Israel last year.

Mr Lee noted during Monday’s joint press briefing that while the Middle East is far from South-east Asia, developments in the region have an impact on Singapore and is of concern to the city state.

“People all over the world are seized with the issues in the Middle East, including issues between Israel and Palestine. It is, especially for Muslim communities, an emotional issue,” he said.

Mr Lee added that Singapore is a good friend of Israel but it is also good friends with the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and many Arab countries.

While noting that the situation in the Middle East is complex, Mr Lee said he hoped Israel and Palestine can resume direct negotiations towards “a just and durable solution” to the conflict.

Multiple efforts have been made to broker an agreement on a two-state solution, in which Israel would exist peacefully alongside a new Palestinian state created in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, lands seized by Israel in the 1967 war, without success.

Last April, Mr Lee made an official week-long trip to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Territories. During his visit to Israel, Mr Lee had urged Israel and the Palestine to resume direct negotiations towards a just and lasting two-state solution. When he visited the Palestinian Territories, he pledged to double an existing technical assistance package by Singapore to the PNA from 
S$5 million to S$10 million.

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.