U.K. to recognize Palestinian state if Israel doesn’t agree to Gaza ceasefire : NPR
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a statement inside Downing St. N ° 10 in London on Tuesday, the day the cabinet was recalled to discuss the situation in Gaza.
Toby Melville / Pool Reuters / AP
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Toby Melville / Pool Reuters / AP
The United Kingdom will recognize a Palestinian state by September, unless Israel goes to peace to the Gaza Strip, which stopped the annexation of the West Bank and other measures, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Tuesday.
This follows an announcement last week by French President Emmanuel Macron that France plans to recognize a Palestinian state in September at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Starmer said that he has long supported negotiations to establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel – known as two -state solution – to help resolve the Israeli -Palestinian conflict. But he said that this solution was now threatened.
“Thus, today, within the framework of this process towards peace, I can confirm that the United Kingdom will recognize the state of Palestine by the United Nations General Assembly in September, unless the Israeli government takes substantial measures to put an end to the appalling situation in Gaza, accepts a cease-fire and is committed to a long-term and lasting discourse, reviving the prospect of a solution to a solution to two states.” Starmer in an address Tuesday.
Starmer also called Hamas – the militant and political organization that directs Gaza – to release the hostages it has seized in the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which caused a large -scale Israeli military invasion of Gaza. He said Hamas should “register for a ceasefire, disarm and accept that they will not play any role in the Gaza government”.
The announcement came while the international alarm increased on famine and deaths in the Gaza Strip, after almost 22 months of war between Israel and Hamas on the territory. On Tuesday, a United Nations food security group warned on Tuesday that the “worst case of famine” takes place, while the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the war exceeded 60,000 years, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
The Israeli government, which opposes the creation of a Palestinian state, criticized the decision of Great Britain. “The change in the position of the British government at present, following the French move and internal political pressures, constitutes a reward for Hamas and harm the efforts to make a cease-fire in Gaza and a framework for the release of the hostages,” said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel in a press release.
Starmer obtained the applause of his Labor Party members. But some members of the Conservative Party of the opposition said that politics put conditions on Israel but not on Hamas. BBC international editor Jeremy Bowen said it was a “big change in British foreign policy”.
More than 140 countries, including several in Europe, already recognize the Palestinian state. The United Kingdom and France – members of the group of seven leading economies – would be the greatest Western powers to do so.
The United Kingdom’s announcement follows a meeting on Monday between Starmer and President Trump in Scotland, where the two discussed the war in Gaza and mass famine in the territory as the main problems.
When asked if Starmer was to join France to recognize a Palestinian state, Trump told journalists: “I’m not going to take a stand. [Starmer] take a stand. I’m trying to have people nourished right now. “”
After the French president Macron announced that his government would recognize the Palestinian state, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared on social networks: “This reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda.” In a statement, the State Department said that movements like France were “counterproductive gestures” which have undermined American diplomatic efforts on the war in Gaza.
