Ministers at U.N. conference press for immediate ceasefire, renewed push to implement two‑state solution

Leaders, ministers and working‑group cochairs at the High Level International Conference on the peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine urged an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and called for concrete international steps to revive and implement a two‑state solution.

The principal goal of the wrap‑up session, co‑chaired by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and France, was to consolidate recommendations from eight thematic working groups and translate them into follow‑up actions, speakers said.

"We are here today with our eyes wide open…The two‑state solution is farther than ever before," Antonio Guterres, secretary‑general of the United Nations, said, calling the conference "a rare and indispensable opportunity" and warning that "the wholesale destruction of Gaza is intolerable. It must stop." Guterres referenced UN resolutions and international law as the framework for a negotiated two‑state outcome.

French and Saudi co‑chairs framed the meeting as a vehicle for turning working‑group proposals into a "joint road plan" that preserves the possibility of a sovereign,…