Netanyahu Reiterates Commitment to Two-State Solution With Palestine

Benjamin Netanyahu said that he was ready to immediately resume direct peace talks with Palestine.

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) – Israel remains committed to a two-state solution with Palestine, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday.

“I remain committed to a vision of two states for two peoples in which a demilitarized Palestinian state recognizes the Jewish state,” Netanyahu said on the fourth day of the 70th UN General Assembly.

The Israeli leader said he was ready to “immediately resume direct peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority without any preconditions whatsoever.”

Israel will always respect the holy shrines at the contested Temple Mount in East Jerusalem, Benjamin Netanyahu said.

The Mount, a holy site for Christians, Jews and Muslims, has seen weeks of clashes between Palestinian protesters and police.

"Israel is fully committed to maintaining the status quo there," Netanyahu claimed as he accused "militant Islamists" of smuggling explosives into the al-Aqsa mosque and trying to prevent Jews and Christians from visiting the holy sites.

"A thousand years before the birth of Christianity, more than 15,000 years before the birth of Islam, King David made Jerusalem our capital and King Solomon built the temple on that mount. Yet Israel will always respect the sacred shrines of all," he continued.

"Far from endangering the holy sites, it is Israel that ensures their safety… That will never change because Israel will ways stay true to its values," he argued.