UK will consider recognizing Palestine state: Foreign secretary

The UK will consider recognizing a Palestinian state as part of efforts to bring about an "irreversible" peace settlement, the British foreign secretary said.

Palestinians must have "a political horizon so that they can see that there is going to be irreversible progress to a two-state solution," David Cameron said at a Westminster reception late Monday.

"We should be starting to set out what a Palestinian state would look like-what it would comprise, how it would work," he added, according to a BBC report.


Cameron said: "That could be one of the things that helps to make this process irreversible."


His remarks came before he will make his fourth visit to the Middle East as foreign secretary, starting in Oman to call for stability over ongoing Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and an immediate pause in the conflict in Gaza, according to a Foreign Office statement.


"As that happens, we, with allies, will look at the issue of recognising a Palestinian state, including at the United Nations. This could be one of the things that helps to make this process irreversible," Cameron said.


The foreign secretary reiterated his call on Israel to allow more humanitarian support into Gaza and said it was "ludicrous" that vital aid was being sent back at the border.

'THIS IS HISTORIC'

In his first reaction to Cameron's remarks, Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian envoy to the UK, said on X: "This is historic. It is the first time a U.K. Foreign Secretary considers recognising the State of Palestine, bilaterally and in the UN, as a contribution to a peaceful solution rather than an outcome."

Zomlot said that the UK's recognition is both "a Palestinian right and a British moral, political, legal, and historical responsibility."

"If implemented, the Cameron Declaration would remove Israel's veto power over Palestinian statehood, would boost efforts toward a two state outcome, and would begin correcting the historic injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people by colonial Britain's Balfour declaration," Zomlot wrote on X.


The Israeli onslaught in the Gaza Strip, launched after the Oct. 7 cross-border offensive by the Palestinian group Hamas, has killed more than 26,000 people, besides causing mass displacement, destruction and risk of famine.

Israel has continued with its attacks despite an interim ruling by the International Court of Justice to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also reiterated his opposition to the two-state solution.

Tensions in the Middle East are high with several overlapping crises. Besides Israel's war on Gaza and its exchange of fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis are targeting Israel-linked commercial ships in the Red Sea in support of the Palestinians, and the U.S. and allies are conducting retaliatory strikes. Attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria have also increased.