Liberia has warned the United Nations Security Council that prospects for lasting peace in the Middle East are rapidly diminishing, citing continued violence, Palestinian displacement and Israeli settlement expansion as threats to a viable two-state solution.
Liberia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Lewis G. Brown II, delivered the warning during the 10,207th meeting of the Security Council while presenting Liberia's position on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question.
Brown reaffirmed Liberia's longstanding support for a two-state solution, recalling the country's 1947 vote for UN General Assembly Resolution 181, which proposed separate Arab and Jewish states.
"Seventy-nine years ago, Liberia cast its vote for UN Resolution 181, a vision of two sovereign homes, an Arab state and a Jewish state," Brown said.
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He noted that Israel was subsequently established, with Liberia among the early countries to recognize the state, while Palestinians have continued to face decades of occupation, displacement and an unrealized aspiration for statehood.
"Liberia has never withdrawn that vote," Brown said, reaffirming the country's support for two states.
But the Liberian envoy warned that repeated international commitments to a two-state solution have not been matched by sufficient action to preserve its viability.
"The two-state solution," he said, "is like a permanent destination we describe in briefings rather than a political decision we actually enforce."
Brown pointed to developments in the West Bank, including Palestinian displacement, settlement expansion and land seizures, as threats to the possibility of establishing a contiguous Palestinian state.
According to him, more than 33,000 Palestinians remain displaced from Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams, while the E1 settlement project and continued land seizures risk further fragmenting the West Bank.
"These are not administrative adjustments. They are the systematic burial of peace," Brown said.
At the same time, Liberia stressed that the security of Israeli civilians must remain an essential component of any lasting settlement.
Brown condemned attacks against Israelis and said durable peace cannot be achieved while civilians remain exposed to violence. He similarly condemned the suffering of Palestinian civilians, particularly women and children, insisting that their protection must be treated with equal seriousness.
"Human dignity cannot be conditional," he said.
Liberia also criticized Hamas, with Brown arguing that armed activities by non-state actors undermine efforts toward Palestinian statehood.
He called for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2803 and the decommissioning of non-state weapons to establish what he described as "one legitimate government, one law and one accountable security authority."
Brown said the principle of accountability should also apply in the West Bank, where he called for an end to settlement expansion and related violence.
The Liberian envoy further raised concerns about the impact of the conflict on children, citing UN reports documenting violations against children across the region.
"No child should ever become collateral damage to the political failures of adults," he said.
Brown challenged the Security Council to assess its response to the Middle East crisis against four standards: protection, return, accountability and viability.
He warned that failure to meet those tests could result in the international community witnessing the disappearance of the two-state solution it has repeatedly pledged to support.
"We are not preserving a two-state solution. We are presiding over its slow-motion disappearance," Brown warned.
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He urged the international community to move beyond statements and repeated debates and take concrete steps before the remaining opportunity for a political settlement disappears.
"History will not ask whether this Council issued enough press statements or debated the Middle East and Palestinian question time without number," Brown said. "It will ask whether, when the window for peace was being sealed shut beneath concrete and violence, we had the courage to act."
Brown concluded by reaffirming Liberia's support for the security and dignity of both Israelis and Palestinians and their right to live in peace.
"Liberia cast its vote for two states in 1947. Seventy-nine years later, we continue to stand for the security of both peoples, the dignity of both peoples, and the absolute right of their children to inherit a future defined by peace, definitely not by perpetual war," he said.
