The Arab world is at a crossroads. This is a moment of truth that rests on the unified leadership and moral clarity of the region. As President Trump arrives in the Gulf this week and seeks investment and strategic partnerships, opportunities for peace and security in the region are overwhelmingly clear. Arab leaders need to clearly explain to President Trump that Middle East peace and economic development are within reach and rely on one critical condition. This is Palestine’s admission to the United Nations as the 194th member state.
For this to become a reality, the United States must lift the veto power of Palestine on entering the United Nations. When the president meets with his local partners, he should hear a clear message from his counterparts: all Arab partnerships with the United States and of course Israel are conditioned on lasting peace through two state solutions the United States can bring.
It is not just diplomatic negotiations that are at stake. The two-state solution is a practical instruction and a test of international solutions. If Israel continues to pass through Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and more, there will be no peace or long-term development in the region. Israel must be forced to live within the borders of June 4, 1967 through diplomacy.
The interests will not be high. The US will receive a crash in investment. The Middle East will achieve the foundations of a surge in normalcy and economic development, and both Israel and Palestine will live in peace.
The Trump administration has deviated significantly from its previous administration and is heading towards a foreign policy centered on practical dealing diplomacy.
Under his leadership, the diplomatic negotiation channel was opened with Iran. The two countries participated in the fourth round of negotiations in Oman regarding nuclear talks. President Trump has repeatedly expressed his willingness to reach a consensus. “I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran,” he said, even happy to meet the Iranian president. Similarly, the US reached a ceasefire agreement with Yemen’s Houtis last week. This is a step forward to encouraging both global trade and stability. Another bold diplomatic manipulation was the direct US negotiations with Hamas, resulting in the release of prisoner Edan Alexander.
It is becoming increasingly clear that President Trump holds strategic interests to us more than anything else, and that he correctly sees peace as his country’s comprehensive strategic interests. This leads to the true potential of peace in the Middle East.
I want you to believe that the enemy of peace in Israel’s extremist government has an essential and almost innate reason for the continued war with Palestine. In essentially racist terms, Netanyahu and his likeness argue that peace with Palestinians is impossible based on the political self-determination and self-scale of Palestinians. The result was the brutal destruction of Israel and the de facto annexation of Gaza and Israel’s ongoing war against the Palestinians in the West Bank.
The Netanyahu government has two main interests: continue the war on Gaza and the West Bank to block the Palestinian state, and draw the United States into a direct conflict with Iran. Both are against our interests.
This Israeli government is currently in complete isolation in the international community. Even Britain, previously a solid supporter of Netanyahu’s war, changed its position. Middle East Hamish Falconer Minister said the government’s position was “crystal clear.” “I strongly oppose the expansion of Israeli operations. Attempts to annex the lands of Gaza would not be acceptable.”
The majority of UN member states have already demonstrated support for the two states’ solutions by adopting a resolution from the UN General Assembly. The will of the global community is clear. Illegal occupation of Israel must end, and Palestinian states must be established in accordance with international law. This is possible under the mantle of the mantle this June at a high-level international conference on Palestine.
Peace was a distinct generational position of the League of Arab Nations, the organisations of Islamic cooperation, and all regional partners. The Arab Peace Initiative (API), adopted at the Beirut Summit in 2002 and has been consistently repeated over the years, calls for Israel to retreat from occupied territories and the establishment of a Palestinian state as the basis for peace and diplomatic normalization with Israel.
This week, President Trump and the Arab leaders have a historic opportunity to end a century-old conflict. By adopting the two-state solution, Trump will bring peace not only to Israel and Palestine, but also to Lebanon, Syria and Iran. The agreement between the US and Iran regarding nuclear non-proliferation and US sanctions on Iran will soon be within reach. The belligerents were able to abandon their arms, and reconstruction and economic development could come to the forefront. In short, this week will provide an extraordinary opportunity for the US and the Arab world to make history, for the benefit of the entire Middle East, including Israel and Palestine, and in fact for the benefit of the whole world.
The views expressed in this article are the authors themselves and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.