President Barack Obama has the full support of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in opposing the Palestinians’ plan to make a bid for statehood at the United Nations next week.
“A U.N. resolution wouldn’t lead to progress,” Albright told POLITICO in an interview Friday ahead of next week’s Clinton Global Initiative in which she will be participating. “Been there, done that – it’s not the right venue.”
Albright, a former secretary of state for former President Bill Clinton who earlier served as the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. from 1993 to 1997, said the American position that the U.N. is the “wrong place” to attempt to resolve Israeli-Palestinian conflict has not changed since her days as a diplomat.
“When we were in office, the two-state solution was what we talked about,” Albright said. “I’m definitely for a two-state solution and I do think that it can happen through the direct negotiations – the only way is through direct negotiations.”
Albright agreed with the Obama administration’s views that a U.N. statehood bid, set for next Friday, was counterproductive, insisting, “New York is the wrong place for this.”
However, she added that having traveled countless times to the region, she fully understood that the sentiment of frustration existed among both the Israelis and the Palestinians.
“I spent a lot of time with the Palestinians [and saw the] level of frustration that exists. I can understand that,” she said. “Whenever I went to Tel Aviv, the Israelis are frustrated, too. It’s obviously one of the most difficult issues out there, and I just think I’m sorry that I just don’t think [the U.N.] is the right place to deal with this.”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/63712.html#ixzz1Y9pckJRi
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