Greenville: US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Thursday said a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians was the only resolution to the conflict there.

Responding to a question from an audience member at an event in South Carolina who asked her whether she thought a two-state solution was possible, Clinton replied, ‘Yes, I do believe it’s possible, and I believe it’s the only resolution that will work.’

‘I think there has to be a negotiated settlement,’ she continued. ‘We have to look for a way to persuade both sides to do more to demonstrate, unequivocally, their commitment to a two-state solution.’

According to the former Secretary of State, ‘there are steps that both sides can and should make that I would be promoting’. She added she believes that the two-state solution would be the ‘best outcome’ for both Israelis and Palestinians.

Clinton’s comments came hours after the UN’s Middle East envoy, Nickolay Mladenov, told the Security Council that ‘the two-state solution is on life-support.’

Today, the envoy said, the two sides are further apart from that goal ‘than ever.’ Support for the two-state solution among both Palestinians and Israelis is fading away, while the current situation on the ground is not sustainable, he warned.

In recent months there has been renewed pressure on both Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) to resume talks based on the ‘two-state solution’.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently urged Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to translate into action his commitment to a two-state solution.

Those comments came in the wake of comments by Netanyahu during the recent election campaign in Israel, when the Prime Minister declared in a series of interviews he would do everything in his power to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, angering Western leaders.