European Nations Threaten to Recognize Palestinian State

Local Editor

Several European nations told US officials that they were seriously considering unilaterally recognizing Palestine as a state, as Sweden did recently last month, if so-called "peace" talks between "Israel" and the Palestinians do not resume.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday, these countries include some of the US's closest allies.

"We're not going to wait forever," a senior European official said, according to the report. "Other European countries are poised to follow Sweden."

According to US officials cited in the report, US Secretary of State John Kerry met with Arab and Palestinian leaders to discuss the ongoing violence in occupied Al-Quds and the deadlocked so-called "peace" process.

The European Union's [EU] new foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini recently last week called for the creation of a Palestinian state within the five years of her term.

On Friday, she also said that "Israel's" settlement activity was an "obstacle" to negotiations based on a two-state solution.

For their part, the Palestinians are set to submit a draft resolution to the UN Security Council later this month [November] calling for an "Israeli" withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines, a senior official said on Tuesday.

It is unclear how European states will vote.

Last month in October, Sweden officially recognized the State of Palestine, making it the first major European Union member state to back Ramallah's statehood bid in this way.

British lawmakers recently in October voted in favor of recognizing Palestine as a state, in a move that will not alter the government's stance on the issue, but that carries symbolic value for Palestinians in their pursuit of statehood.

Also, French Socialist lawmakers on Tuesday were preparing to submit a motion to parliament asking the government to recognize Palestine as a state.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team