Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announces that the country’s council of ministers would recognize an independent Palestinian state during a plenary session of the lower house of the Spanish parliament, in Madrid, Spain, on May 22. (Credit: Violeta Santos Moura/Reuters)
The prime ministers of Ireland, Spain and Norway hailed his decision to recognize a Palestinian state as an “important step” towards “peace” in the region.
All three emphasized the role of the Palestinian state in implementing the two-state solution in the Middle East.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told the Spanish Parliament that Spain had chosen “to recognize the State of Palestine for peace, coherence and justice.”
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris called the move an “important step” toward “permanent peace,” speaking to reporters in Dublin.
“Recognition is an act of powerful political and symbolic value. It is an expression of our view that Palestine possesses and should be able to claim all the rights of a state, including self-determination, self-government, territorial integrity and security,” he said. Harris.
“It is a decision that is being made on its merits. But we cannot ignore the fact that we are making it while Palestinians in Gaza are enduring the most atrocious suffering, hardship and hunger. A humanitarian catastrophe unimaginable to most and inconceivable to everyone is developing in real time.”
Harris acknowledged that although there will be “reactions” and “interpretations” of the implications of the decision, it was important “not to lose sight” that both the children of Gaza and Israel “deserve peace.”
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre told reporters in Oslo that “there can be no peace in the Middle East unless Palestinians and Israelis have their own state, and there is a two-state solution.”
“There can be no two-state solution without a Palestinian state and, in other words, peace in the Middle East requires a Palestinian state,” Støre said.
