Ambassador Riyad Mansour at the un in new york, welcome to hardtalk. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Its a pleasure to have you on the programme. Ambassador, do you have any hope left that talks can achieve a stop or at least a suspension to the war in gaza . I still have hope. And thats what drives me to work harder with all of my colleagues, to succeed in putting an end to this war, to have a ceasefire, and to be able to send humanitarian assistance up to the needs of the people in the gaza strip and to prevent a forced Mass Transfer to egypt. I mean, nobody would doubt that, for the two million and more palestinians who live in gaza and of course the 100 or so hostages who are being held in the tunnels in gaza as well, every day is a day of extreme suffering. The problem is, if one looks at the talks and what is being said about the talks, there appears to be very little ground for optimism. For example, the israelis say no way will they even countenance a stop to their Military
Thank you. Thank you for having me. Its a pleasure to have you on the programme. Ambassador, do you have any hope left that talks can achieve a stop or at least a suspension to the war in gaza . I still have hope. And thats what drives me to work harder with all of my colleagues, to succeed in putting an end to this war, to have a ceasefire, and to be able to send humanitarian assistance up to the needs of the people in the gaza strip and to prevent a forced Mass Transfer to egypt. I mean, nobody would doubt that, for the 2 million and more palestinians who live in gaza and of course the 100 or so hostages who are being held in the tunnels in gaza as well, every day is a day of extreme suffering. The problem is, if one looks at the talks and what is being said about the talks, there appears to be very little ground for optimism. For example, the israelis say no way will they even countenance a stop to their Military Operations until hamas provides a full list of those hostages who are
welcome to hardtalk. thank you, stephen. ambassador, i want to begin with some words said recently by the uk foreign minister, david cameron. he said this: the lights are flashing red right across the global dashboard. it is hard to think of a time when there s been so much danger, insecurity, instability in the world. would you agree with him on that? i would. and where do you see the instability at its most dangerous? the most pressing thing today is, of course, the middle east. you cannot deny it. it s obvious. it is a conflict that is fraught with the regional conflagration, potential global conflagration. you see what s happening what has been happening in recent days. you have seen what s been happening in the red sea with the us aggression on yemen, with the recent us was plus uk aggression on iraq and syria, the situation on the northern border of israel with lebanon. so, the middle east may explode, unfortunately. i m looking at some of your recent quotes. yo