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Former U.S. president Carter says Netanyahu "abandons" two-state solution

22 October 2012 22:32 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Monday harshly criticized the Israeli government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for "abandoning" the two-state solution, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Carter is currently visiting Israel as part of the elders, a group of former global leaders working to promote peace throughout the world, the Times of Israel website reported.

In his statements made at a Jerusalem hotel during a press conference, he warned of a looming "catastrophe" and blamed Netanyahu and his government for their policy.

"We’re heading towards a one-state outcome, which will fail to ensure the security and democratic rights of the people of Israel and renege on the promise of self-determination for the Palestinians," Carter said.

"The two-state solution is vanishing," Carter said, "We urgently need a fresh approach by all parties if a Palestinian state is to be achieved."

Carter blamed the government for pulling Israel towards a " Greater Israel" resolution to take over all the lands between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River.

"Every (Israeli) prime minister I’ve known has been a pursuer of the two-state solution, from Golda Meir but up until Benjamin Netanyahu. I don’t know whether (U.S. President Barack) Obama found Prime Minister Netanyahu going down that route," he added.

The former president also said he will endorse the Palestinians ’ bid to ask the United Nations to accept it into its lines as an official state, hoping that the bid’s opponents, the United States and Israel, will welcome the outcome of the vote.

Peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians came to a halt in 2010, as controversy grew over the expansion of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Carter sat in the White House between 1977 and 1981, and played a key role in negotiating the 1979 peace accord between Israel and Egypt.