WASHINGTON, 30 March 2022, (TON): Agreements on the normalization of relations between Israel and the Arab countries cannot be a substitute for the settlement of the Middle East conflict.

This was stated by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, speaking on Tuesday at a press conference in Rabat, where he is on a visit.

He said “I have just visited Jerusalem and Ramallah. And one of the things that I expressed in Jerusalem with Israeli colleagues and in Ramallah with President Abbas, of course, the continued support of the United States for the solution [of the Middle East conflict] in based on the principle of two-state coexistence.”

He said that this is an outcome that will meet the as-pirations of the Palestinian people and their right to a state of their own, as well as, of course, the security of Israel and its viability as a Jewish democratic state. Normalization agreements and the work that Morocco and other countries are doing with Israel do not replace this two-state outcome [to achieve a settlement of the conflict based on the principle of coexistence], but they can, I think, strengthen it.”