United Nations
25 March 2008
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has pledged his personal support to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and is urging both parties not to let recent violence derail the peace process. From United Nations headquarters in New York, VOA's Margaret Besheer has more.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad asked the council whether the format of these debates is really helpful to solving the crisis between the Arabs and Israelis. He told reporters later that the United States is not calling for an end to these monthly meetings, but whether the public format of the debate helps create the necessary environment for pursuing peace.
"The constructive role the international community, the Security Council, the United Nations can play, is to help the parties realize this vision of a two-state solution. But often these meetings tend to get polarized, tend to be used as opportunities for posturing, rather than doing what is necessary to help the parties," said Khalilzad.
The Palestinian representative said he is open to any constructive suggestion that would allow the Security Council to shoulder its responsibility in a concrete way to help end the conflict.