Murray flies to aid of US
By Clayton O’TooleDynamic Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully took Washington by storm this week when he told Secretary of State John Kerry that New Zealand was re
McCully and Kerry had a 45 minute meeting earlier today, before the top negotiator had to fly out to the Middle East in a further bid to revive stalled peace talks.
US-brokered talks between the Palestinians and Israel broke down in 2010 in a dispute over continuing Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank.
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New Zealand has long been committed to the United Nations resolutions which seek to advance the two-state solution in the region.
Today, McCully said that he commended Kerry’s work in bringing about new peace talks, and suggested that New Zealand would support the US if negotiations progress.
“New Zealand has, with others, been calling for the strongest US leadership on this matter, as the window for a two-state solution draws dangerously more closed.
“But we are not asking you to do it alone,” said McCully. “New Zealand and many other countries want to actively support Secretary Kerry in finding a way to achieve a two-state settlement in the Middle East in the narrow window that is left.”
He said that New Zealand has been engaged in the Multinational Force of Observers (MFO) maintaining peace in Sinai for over 30 years.
“We all have a huge stake in defusing the dispute that carries the seeds of wider conflict in the region and beyond,” McCully added.