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NEW YORK: An international conference organized by Saudi Arabia and France to discuss Palestinian statehood has been rescheduled for later this month.

“The two-state solution ministerial conference will resume on July 28 and 29, details will be shared shortly,” diplomats confirmed to Arab News on Friday.

Originally scheduled for June, the International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Palestinian Question and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution was postponed when Israel launched airstrikes against Iran.

The event was convened by the UN General Assembly and will be co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia at the UN headquarters in New York.

The conference aims to urgently adopt concrete measures toward the implementation of a two-state solution and end decades of conflict between Israel and Palestinians.

The event was due to take place on June 17-20, just a few days after Israel launched its 12-day military operation against Iran.

French President Emmanuel Macron said at the time that the conference was put back for logistical and security reasons, and insisted that it would be held “as soon as possible.”

He said the delay did not “call into question our determination to move forward with the implementation of the two-state solution.”

Macron is expected to use the event to announce French recognition of a Palestinian state. This week, he urged Britain to do the same.

Palestine is officially recognized by 147 of the UN’s 193 member states and has observer status at the UN but is not a full member. 

Speaking at a preparatory UN meeting in May, Manal Radwan, counsellor at Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry, said the conference came at a moment of “historic urgency” with Gaza “enduring unimaginable suffering.”

She said Saudi Arabia was honored to stand with other nations committed to the diplomatic effort to bring “real, irreversible and transformative change, to ensure, once and for all, the peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine.”

RIYADH: Saudi Deputy Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture Mansour bin Hilal Al-Mushaiti has launched the second phase of the Sidra Accelerator initiative in Riyadh, SPA reports.

The initiative is designed to foster an entrepreneurial ecosystem in Saudi Arabia’s environmental sector in line with the Saudi Vision 2030.

The Sidra Accelerator is the first initiative of its kind in the region in terms of its targeted sectors and the locations of its selected entrepreneurship systems in Riyadh and Boston, SPA reports. 

The accelerator focuses on promoting collaboration and strategic partnerships. It also supports startup companies in navigating complex regulatory frameworks.

The Sidra Accelerator is a 12-week intensive program targeting startup companies in the environmental technology field, the ministry said.

It supports their development and scaling by connecting them to a wide network of local and international experts, providing access to global systems and markets, and facilitating cooperation with leading venture capital firms. Ultimately, the program will help them expand globally, the ministry said.