Iceland’s Foreign Minister Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir met Palestine’s Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday and said both Israeli and Palestinian officials see a chance for peace.
Gísladóttir said now is the right time for peace discussions, because time is running out for both countries. The conflict has reached a dead end, she said. Palestine suffers from a great political, economical and social depression and Israel has no other choice but to make an agreement with the Palestinian National Authority, otherwise there is a danger of complete chaos and increased terrorism, as Morgunbladid reports.
“It is in such a deciding moment that people believe that peace discussions will deliver results, a better standard of living and some future options,” Gísladóttir told RÚV.
The foreign minister said Israeli officials had suggested Iceland would take over from Norway as leader of peace discussions between Israel and Palestine, which had taken her by surprise.
“I don’t know if we are capable of doing that, but if there is a possibility, we should, not just because of the people here […] and our compassion for them, but also because of the safety of people everywhere in the Western world,” Gísladóttir said.
The foreign minister will spend today in Jerusalem, where she will visit the Aida refugee camp and talk with leaders of Israeli and Palestinian women.
Click here to read about Gísladóttir’s visit to bombing victims in Israel.
