Türkiye's Deputy Foreign Minister Nuh Yılmaz on Monday said Israel's decades-long occupation remains the core barrier to Palestinian statehood.
"It was a recurring view that the continued occupation is the main obstacle on the way to Palestinian statehood," Yılmaz said at a high-level conference on the two-state solution at UN headquarters in New York.
Praising France for its recent decision to recognize Palestinian statehood, he said, "We sincerely hope that many others will follow suit soon."
Highlighting feedback from working group submissions, Yılmaz said the group expressed "a strong desire … to contribute to ending the decades-long suffering of the Palestinian people."
He emphasized that "there were submissions rightfully proposing programs to help build capacity in the Palestinian Authority yet empowering the state of Palestine," and that "calls for addressing the urgent question of how to end the Israeli occupation" dominated the discussion.
Yılmaz also warned of looming annexation plans, saying: "While the annexation of Palestinian territories by Israel is looming, as called for by the Israeli parliament on July 23, our tools should be proportionally strong and effective."
Among proposals from participating delegations, Yılmaz said "some stakeholders made submissions proposing the establishment of mechanisms to enforce international law and international humanitarian law."
He added that beyond the Gaza Strip's worsening humanitarian crisis, "illegal settlements, confiscation of land, house demolitions by Israel in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, also call for urgent action."
Noting that some members of the working group "emphasize that measures, including sanctions, should be imposed against settlers in the occupied Palestinian territory," he stressed that "Israel may also be subjected to coercive measures, as it is the enabler of the illegal settlements."
"The acts of Israel to displace, dislocate and expel Palestinian people from their homeland should be prevented without any delay. We cannot envisage the state of Palestine without a Palestinian nation," he said.
Yılmaz listed eight key priorities identified by the working group: implementation of the two-state solution, recognition and full UN membership for Palestine, humanitarian and reconstruction efforts in Gaza, institutional development, halting settlements and forced displacement, accountability and rule of law, civil society engagement, and security guarantees.
"The submissions send a clear message: The international community must act urgently and decisively to preserve the two-state vision, to uphold legal and humanitarian principles and to move beyond expressions of concern to activating mechanisms of accountability," he said.
