Palestine seeks UN action to end Israeli occupation

A Palestinian envoy to the UN Tuesday called on the UN Security Council to support its initiative to end Israel's occupation within a time frame and protect the Palestinians.

At an open debate of the Security Council on the situation of the Middle East, Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the UN, said that "it is high-time to move beyond speaking of the two-State solution in theory and time to act forthwith to actualize it", Xinhua reported.

He stressed that "we cannot return to the same cycle of failed negotiations, which are only used by Israel as a means to alleviate international pressure and as a cover for its illegal schemes to entrench, rather than end, its occupation".

Israelis and the Palestinians ended their last round of peace talks at the end of April, 2014. The nine-month talks came to a deadlock by late March with both sides accusing each other of failing to keep its commitments.