The Herald on Sunday

Hopes of peace with Israel ‘waning’, UN told

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PALESTINIA­N president Mahmoud Abbas has said that hope of peace with Israel is “waning” as he addressed the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations.

Mr Abbas delivered a pessimisti­c assessment of diplomacy, saying a “frantic campaign to confiscate our lands” persisted in the generation­s-long dispute, while the military “are killing the Palestinia­n people in broad daylight” with impunity.

“Our confidence in achieving a peace based on justice and internatio­nal law is waning, due to the Israeli occupation policies,” he said. “Do you want to kill what remains of hope in our souls?”

Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank is now in its 55th year. The last substantia­l round of peace talks ended in 2009, and critics say growing Israeli settlement­s in the West Bank and elsewhere undermine any hopes for a two-state solution.

Israel’s PM repeated on Thursday that he supports a two-state solution – but there is almost no prospect for one soon.

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