Eritrea’s legal, political and moral stance regarding the Palestinian issue is long-lasting: Senior Foreign Ministry Official

A senior official of the Eritrean Foreign Ministry underlined that the nation’s legal, political and moral stance regarding the Palestinian issue is not something new. In this regard, the official pointed out that President Isaias Afwerki  had, in various interviews he conducted on different occasions, underscored that the Government of Eritrea does not support the so-called “two-state solution” . 
Asmara, 6 August 2011 – A senior official of the Eritrean Foreign Ministry underlined that the nation’s legal, political and moral stance regarding the Palestinian issue is not something new. In this regard, the official pointed out that President Isaias Afwerki  had, in various interviews he conducted on different occasions, underscored that the Government of Eritrea does not support the so-called “two-state solution” . 

If one analyzes the genesis of such so-called ‘solution’ and why? has a study been made on it in the first place? and what about the momentum it had created in complicating the issue? , it certainly leads to the aforementioned assertion. As I see it, no one can claim to have a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian issue. According to the claim uttered now and then, the so-called right to self determination on the basis of the 1967 borders, return of refugees, defining border delimitation, the capital of the imagined Palestinian State to be formed thereof with Jerusalem as its capital leads but to the momentum just referred to. No one can manage such a ‘momentum’, the Foreign Ministry official elaborated. He further asserted that the two-state ‘solution’ might emanate from goodwill, but cannot be translated into action.

Reaffirming that campaigns and public relations gimmicks would produce no outcome other than being a poison  for  sidetracking the Palestinian issue, the senior official recalled that the Eritrean government made it quite clear that the Oslo Accord of the early 90’s would by no means resolve the basic problem but only prolong it.

‘Flexibility, negotiations and so forth would only be time consuming exercise, besides further complicating matters.  If we scrutinize the issues one by one starting from Oslo to Madrid and the like, including the recent one, the issues raised and the resolutions adopted have no relations with the real problem. And the so-called attempts for bringing about so-called solution only aggravate the problem. In actual fact, problem after problem keep on surfacing, the senior official of the Eritrean Foreign Ministry emphasized. Even the purported ‘solutions’ eventually end up in a zero sum situation, simply because there exist no peace process that would to lead to the realization of the set goal, namely achieving common interests. As of late, it has become a fashion; be it dialogue, negotiation or consultation for what? Only to divert the issue. In essence, it is not to seek a genuine solution, the official elaborated.

It is to be recalled that the Eritrean Foreign Ministry, in a press statement it issued on July 4, the support of the people and government of Eritrea for the legitimate right of the Palestinian people to self-determination is an obligation that does not waver with time and circumstances.