Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Thursday with the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Nickolay Mladenov at the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem for a farewell meeting.
Netanyahu thanked him for the positive role he has played in the region, stressing the importance of the UN continuing to assist the humanitarian mission of returning IDF casualties and civilians held by Hamas in Gaza.
On December 21, the Foreign Ministry and the
Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) organized a ceremony for Mladenov at the Kennedy Memorial in the Jerusalem Forest and included parting words from various political figures.
Speakers included KKL-JNF deputy world chairman Amir Shneider, the ministry's political director Alon Bar and its deputy director-general Yael Ravia-Zadokas, as well as Mladenov himself.
The same week, Mladenov told the UN
Security Council, which held its monthly meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that as he was leaving his office, he "remained firmly convinced that the world cannot leave the situation unattended.”
During the five-year period that he has held his office, Mladenov has briefed the council monthly on the situation on the ground. In the coming weeks, he will take up a new post as UN Special Envoy of the Secretary-General to Libya. He will be replaced by veteran Norwegian diplomat Tor Wennesland.
Mladenov said that Wennesland is “one of the most capable diplomats I have ever worked with. I wish him every success in the years ahead and hope that you will extend to him your full support, as you have done to me.”
In a statement of Twitter, Mladenov said "Thank you PM @netanyahu for your engagement on a range of regional challenges. The #UN is a partner for peace for #Israelis and #Palestinians. I hope all issues, including the humanitarian question of the missing persons and the opening #Gaza will be resolved."
He further described three decades of attempted initiatives to resolve the conflict, but said that at the end of the day, the solution must come from Israelis and Palestinians themselves.
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Israelis and Palestinians have to end the decades of loss and violence by finding a way out of the impasse, Mladenov said.Mladenov, in successive tweets, also thanked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh for their work.
"Thank you President @AlsisiOfficial and @MfaEgypt for your relentless work with the #UN in helping bridge differences between #Israelis and #Palestinians. Without your leadership and partnership war in #Gaza would have been inevitable."
