Egypt's permanent envoy to the United Nations, Ambassador Mootaz Ahmadein Khalil said on Tuesday that Israel, being the occupying state, should take steps to fulfill the two-state-solution. He stated that recent statistics, showing the increase of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, threaten this solution and destroy any chance of achieving peace in the Middle East. Egypt's statement was delivered by Khalil at the Security Council's monthly session to discuss the situation in the Middle East. Khalil affirmed Egypt's support for the ongoing negotiations between Palestine and Israel, expressing Egypt's worries over reports that differences between both sides are difficult to overcome. He warned that the current crisis in Syria would divert attention from the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights. He also welcomed the agreement to destroy Syrian chemical weapons, calling for the total disarmament of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. Khalil added that the destroying of Syrian weapons is a milestone in the series of "incomplete steps in the Security Council's decision to rid the Middle East of mass destruction weapons." The decision was only applied to Iraq. Khalil drew attention to Minister of Foreign Affairs Nabil Fahmy's initiative during at 68th UN General Assembly for the total disarmament of mass destruction weapons in the Middle East. Khalil urged for the delayed 2012 conference regarding the disarmament of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East to be held before the spring of 2014.
