'Two-state solution is the right outcome', Sunak insists, after Israel's ambassador says it is 'absolutely not' possible
14 December 2023, 10:20 | Updated: 14 December 2023, 10:38
Rishi Sunak has said he "does not agree" with comments made by Israel's ambassador to the UK, who said a two-state solution is "absolutely not" possible after the war with Hamas.
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Tzipi Hotovely, who used to be Israel's deputy foreign minister before moving into an ambassador role, said "Palestinians never wanted to have a state next to Israel".
Mr Sunak said he did not agree with her comments, insisting the two-state solution remains the right outcome.
"Our long-standing position remains that a two-state solution is the right outcome. And more immediately, what's going on is incredibly concerning," the prime minister said.
Andrew Marr quizzes Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely
Ms Hotovely added that the Palestinians have been saying "loud and clear" that Palestine should be "free from the river to the sea", which he previously told LBC was a call for ethnic cleansing.
Ms Hotovely's comments come after she previously told LBC's Andrew Marr that a two-state solution was not possible "at present" due to the Palestinian authority's refusal to condemn the October 7 attacks.
"It's not possible because as we speak, the leader in the politic of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, refuses to condemn those horrific crimes that Hamas committed, so he doesn't even try to look like a different leader than the leaders that are in Gaza," she told Tonight with Andrew Marr last month.
Ms Hotovely has continued to furiously hit back at the idea, asking Sky yesterday: "WHY are you obsessed with a two-state solution?"
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She went on: "I think it's about time for the world to realise that the Oslo paradigm failed on October 7 and we need to build a new one."
She also said Israel would not be engaging in a ceasefire as it would lead to another October 7-style attack, in which 1,200 Israelis were killed.
Israel has since engaged in a two-month long retaliatory bombardment campaign in Gaza in a bid to "wipe out Hamas".
There was a brief 'humanitarian pause', which allowed dozens of hostages to be released by Hamas.
Since then, Israel's bombardment campaign has continued. More than 14,000 Palestinians - primarily women and children - have been killed in the war.
It comes as Israel's faces pressure from US President Joe Biden to wrap up the war sooner rather than later.
Mr Biden has reportedly told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to conclude the campaign against Hamas by the end of the first week in January.
Speaking this week, the US President said Israel is starting to lose global support over its "indiscriminate bombing" of Gaza.
"Israel's security can rest on the United States, but right now it has more than the United States. It has the European Union, it has Europe, it has most of the world," he told donors to his 2024 re-election campaign in Washington.
"But they're starting to lose that support by indiscriminate bombing that takes place," he said.
