UNITED NATIONS (TIP): The United States is open to a new UN resolution on Gaza but only if it contributes to sustaining the Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire, the US envoy to the United Nations said. Ambassador Samantha Power said that a resolution must “do no harm” to the ceasefire that has been holding in recent days and Israeli- Palestinian talks that are scheduled to resume in Cairo, and should “play a positive role in supporting a durable solution.” “Nothing underscores the urgency of securing … a negotiated two-state solution like the crisis in Gaza and the heartbreak that so many people on both sides suffered throughout that crisis,” she said.

Hanan Ashrawi, a senior figure in the Palestine Liberation Organization, told a news conference here Tuesday that the Palestinians are demanding a commitment to the 1967 borders and a deadline for the end of Israel‘s occupation, adding when pressed that “within three years, the occupation should end.”She also criticised the failed US peace initiative by US secretary of state John Kerry, saying it allowed Israel “to persist in policies” that she characterized as unilateral and abusive.Power defended Kerry’s mission and stressed that negotiations are the only way to achieve a two-state solution where Israel and Palestine live side by side in peace.