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Obama: No Palestinian State via UN

(BBC News) Andrew Marr - President Obama told BBC in an interview Sunday: "Most observers of the long history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict recognize...that if you're going to have any kind of peace, you're going to have two states side by side....And the basis for negotiations will involve looking at the 1967 border, recognizing that conditions on the ground have changed, and there are going to need to be swaps to accommodate the interests of both sides." "The security element is going to be important to the Israelis. They will not be able to move forward unless they feel that they themselves can defend their territory, particularly given what they've seen happen in Gaza, and the rockets that have been fired by Hizbullah." "Our argument is let's get started on a conversation about territory and about security. That doesn't resolve all the issues. You still end up having the problem of Jerusalem, and you still end up having the problem of refugees. But if we make progress on what two states would look like, a reality sets in among the parties that this is how it's going to end up; then it becomes easier for both sides to make difficult concessions to resolve those two other issues." "The notion that you can solve this problem in the United Nations is simply unrealistic....We've said directly to the Palestinians...that whatever happens in the United Nations, you are going to have to talk to the Israelis if you are going to have a state in which your people have self-determination. You are not going to be able to do an end run around the Israelis. So...whatever efforts they mount in the United Nations will be symbolic."
2011-05-24 00:00:00
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