UNITED NATIONS - Pakistan has warned that delay by international community to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is eroding the two-State solution, and called for stepped up efforts to bring peace to the region.“Delay does not mean suspension of activity; it is tantamount to abdication of responsibility,” Pakistani Ambassador Masood Khan, who is also President of the Security Council for the month of January, said on Wednesday. “This year – the year 2013 – is crucial,” he said in a speech to the 15-member Council in his national capacity. “If relevant actors do not take action now, the two-State solution may not remain viable,” he added.In this contest, Masood Khan, who was speaking in a Security Council debate on the Middle East question, urged the diplomatic Quartet for the Middle East — the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union — and the Security Council to demonstrate a sense of urgency. If the Quartet could not move forward, countries “with interest and influence in the region” should act to facilitate resumption of the peace process. Reviewing significant recent developments including a November 2012 ceasefire between Hamas and Israel and the General Assembly’s vote to make Palestine a “non-Member observer State”, the Pakistani envoy said that there had regrettably been punitive measures carried out by Israel.Those steps were the announcement of new settlements, and the withholding of tax revenues owed to the Palestinian Authority, he said. He called both measures to be rolled back, while condemning the Israeli announcement to expand settlements, which contravened international law.  Comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East could not be ensured without Israel’s withdrawal from all occupied lands, including those of Lebanon and the Syrian Golan, and the Security Council must also ensure and monitor the implementation of resolution 1860 (2009), as well as other relevant resolutions, he told the 15-member Council.As Syria descended deeper into conflict, severely wracked by internecine violence, the humanitarian crisis continued to grow , he said.“The only realities on the ground are continuing carnage and a political stalemate”, he said in that regard, adding, “we need a ray of hope, a breakthrough”.He first said both the Syrian Government and the Opposition must abandon the mindset that they could win the war militarily; second, engagement was the only viable path; third, regional Powers and key Council members needed to persuade the parties to renounce violence and come to the negotiating table; fourth, supplies of arms must be stopped forthwith; fifth and lastly, humanitarian access needed to be improved to alleviate the sufferings of the people.