A presidential press statement issued after a council meeting said the members of the Security Council supported the Quartet roadmap to a permanent two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Quartet embraces the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union.

The members of the council called on the parties to fulfill their obligations to achieve the vision of two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security, said the statement.

They reconfirmed the importance of, and the need to achieve, a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East, including the Israeli-Syrian and Israeli-Lebanese tracks, the statement said.

At the meeting this morning, the Security Council heard and discussed a briefing by Under-Secretary-General Kieran Prendergaston the situation in the Middle East.

During the briefing, Prendergast noted that the past few days following the Aqaba Summit early this month witnessed a sharp rise in violence, reigniting the familiar spiral of violence, counter-violence and revenge. "Today, we are at a point where either the promise of peace or a resumption of violence will define the course of the political process in the weeks and months ahead," he said.

He said that staying on the path of the roadmap in the face of continuing violence is very difficult for the parties. "But let us be clear. Stay the course they must. The alternative is no alternative."

According to Prendergast, 63 Palestinians and 26 Israelis have lost their lives since the last briefing to the Security Council on May 19. That raises the total death toll since September 2000 to 2,714 Palestinians and 778 Israelis.

(Xinhua News Agency June 14, 2003)