Winston Peters meets Palestinian Authority PM ahead of major UN speeches
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has met with the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority as conflict in the Middle East continues to escalate ahead of the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks.
Peters is in New York representing New Zealand at the 79th session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly this week. He will deliver a number of speeches, including to the General Assembly and to the UN Security Council.
Ahead of those, Peters has been meeting with a slew of other foreign ministers and representatives on the sidelines of the event. The Foreign Affairs Minister’s X feed shows photos of him speaking with the likes of the Prime Minister of Norway, the Foreign Minister of Australia, Prime Minister of Samoa, and Foreign Minister of Singapore.
Peters has also held bilateral meetings, including with Mohammad Mustafa, the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA). The PA was established in the 1990s in the hope it would govern a future Palestinian state, though that has never been achieved.
“The meeting was an opportunity to reiterate New Zealand’s support for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and to urge negotiations towards a two-state solution,” Peters’ ministerial X account said.
It comes at a critical time in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, which has de facto control over Gaza.
With less than two weeks until the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, unrest in the region is spiralling beyond Gaza and into Lebanon. Israel has been conducting strikes on Lebanon against Hezbollah, which has ties to Hamas, killing at least 569 people.
New Zealand last week supported a UN resolution calling on Israel to end its “unlawful” presence in the occupied Palestinian territory. While many countries backed the proposal, New Zealand was the only Five Eyes nation to support it.
While Peters said the resolution wasn’t perfect – he said the 12-month timeframe for Israel to withdraw was “unrealistic” – it was a signal of support for the two-state solution.
“The Israel-Palestine conflict has gone on for far too long and the suffering it has caused on both sides is immense. We have consistently said that a two-state solution is the only durable and just solution for Israelis and Palestinians.”
In the House last week, Labour’s foreign affairs spokesperson David Parker asked Peters when New Zealand would recognise Palestine, given he had previously said it was a matter of “when, not if”.
“New Zealand will recognise Palestine statehood, but to say, as some have said, that it must be evacuated in the space of one year – these unrealistic statements might be a sop to some people’s consciences, but people out there want real help, and that’s what we’re trying to give them.”
That vote risks creating some instability of its own in the coalition Government. Act leader David Seymour has told Peters that he would like to be consulted on similar matters in the future. A spokesperson for Peters hit back saying the minister didn’t consult on the “literally hundreds of UN General Assembly resolutions that are considered each year that are within established foreign policy settings”.
Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub Press Gallery office.