Time has come for Israel to change: Ban Ki-moon

Ary Hermawan ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Mon, 06/08/2009 12:25 PM  |  World

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon welcomed Monday the renewed international effort to achieve peace in the Middle East, saying it is time for Israel to "fundamentally change its policies."

"I am encouraged by President Obama's commitment to (Mideast peace efforts)," he said in a statement read by UN under-secretary general Noeleen Heyzer to the UN Asian and Pacific Meeting on the Question of Palestine in Jakarta on Monday.

He expressed his concerns of the remaining humanitarian crisis in the isolated Gaza Strip and called on Israel to allow in the fuel, funds and materials urgently needed to build infrastructures devastated by the Israeli Gaza offensive.

In the West Bank, he said, the Palestinians continue to endure unacceptable unilateral action, which hinders the improving security situation in the area.

"The time has come for Israel to fundamentally change its policies in this regard, as it has repeatedly promised to do," he said, adding Israel must stop settlement expansion in the West Bank.

Israel is already facing pressure from its strong American ally to freeze Israeli settlement construction and to coexist peacefully with an independent Palestinian state. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, has not publicly announced its support for the two state solution pressed by Obama.

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