Luxembourg's foreign minister tells EU to recognise Palestine to save peace process

Luxembourg's foreign minister tells EU to recognise Palestine to save peace process
Jean Asselborn has urged the EU to recognise Palestine as a state uncodnitionally ahead of a foreign affairs summit.
2 min read
20 January, 2020
Jean Asselborn urged for the recognition of a Palestinian state [Getty]

Luxembourg’s foreign minister has urged for the European Union to officially recognise Palestine as a state, in order to save the peace process between Palestinians and Israelis.

Speaking ahead of the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council, Jean Asselborn urged for recognising a Palestinian state in a bid to save the dying "Two State Solution".

"If Israel came to this point, we would experience the same situation as encountered in another country back in 2014," he said on Monday, comparing Israel's brutal occupation of Palestinian land to Russia's annexation of Crimea. 

In 2014, the EU Parliament adopted a resolution supporting Palestinian statehood as a principle, as opposed to compelling all 28 member states to unconditionally. recognise Palestine. 

Talks of recognising a Palestinian state have faltered in recent years with Israel illegally grabbing more land in the occupied West Bank for settlements.

A number of countries have also moved their embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – a trend started by US President Donald Trump.

Two State Solution 'dead'

Israel occupied East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.

Read also: Italy's right-wing pledges to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital if elected

It considers the entire city its capital, while the Palestinians see the eastern sector as the capital of their future state.

Most countries have their embassies in the coastal city of Tel Aviv. 

In December 2017, US President Donald Trump broke with a decades-long consensus that the city's status should be decided in peace negotiations between the two sides.

His recognition of the city as Israel's capital and subsequent embassy move in May 2018 sparked outrage among Palestinians and many other countries across the world.

The move to recognise Israel as Jerusalem's capital is seen as an destroying any prospect of a Palestinian state.

Out of 195 countries in the world, an overwhelming 135 of them recognise Palestine’s statehood.




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