UN says two-state solution ‘slipping away as we speak’

UN special Middle East coordinator Nickolay Mladenov tells Reuters that without a two-state solution, Israel and the Palestinians will live in “perpetual violence.”

“(The two-state solution) is perhaps the furthest away it’s ever been, and in fact it is really worse than that — it is slipping away as we speak,” he says.

“It’s time for the international community and the leadership on both sides to wake up.”

“The only alternative (to a two-state solution) that I see is perpetual violence here in Israel and Palestine and entangling this conflict into the broader problems of the region,” he says, likening it to “writing a blank check to violence and radicalism.”

He says there has been a “dramatic” collapse of trust between the two parties, and predicting renewed negotiations is “close to daydreaming.”