UN chief exhorts Israel to yield on annexation

24 June 2020, 4:40 pm

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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterates his opposition to Israel’s planned unilateral annexation of parts of the West Bank.

“We are at a watershed moment,” he says at a virtual meeting of the UN Security Council. “If implemented, annexation would constitute a most serious violation of international law. I call on the Israeli government to abandon its annexation plans.”

Opening a special session of the Security Council, during which Israeli and Palestinians envoys are set to speak as well, Guterres says that the world needs to cling to a two-state solution leading to a Palestinian state based on the pre-’67 lines and “Jerusalem as the capital of both states.”

— Raphael Ahren