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Recognising Palestinian state ‘right thing to do’: Norway foreign minister
Espen Barth Eide has told Al Jazeera that Norway has decided to move towards formally recognising a Palestinian state because “it’s the right thing to do.”
“The Palestinian people have a right to statehood, and it has been our view for many, many years,” the Norwegian foreign minister said.
Barth Eide added that Norway believed its bilateral recognition would come after a negotiated settlement but “now realized that there are no such negotiations going on”.
We’re “realising that the drama we’ve seen with the terror attacks in Israel, with the extreme violence in Gaza, with the settler violence in the West Bank, the whole situation is now getting out of hand and in the hands of extremists”, he said.
“And we want to raise the voice of those who still believe in a peaceful, nonviolent solution, who still believe that there can be an Israeli and a Palestinian state living side by side.”
Barth Eide says recognising Palestine state only ‘one piece of the puzzle’
Norway’s foreign minister told Al Jazeera that he does not believe that his country’s move to recognise the Palestine state will solve the conflict with Israel.
“There’s actually no action that on its own will solve the crisis of the Middle East,” said Espen Barth Eide. “It’s a puzzle with many pieces. One piece is to establish a Palestinian state, another one is normalisation with the Arab states. A third one is peace guarantees for Israel, demobilisation of the Hamas, strengthening the Palestine Authority.”
“But this is one piece of the puzzle and it’s one piece that we hold and we are ready to play that card or lay that piece now as a contribution to a role to settlement,” he said.
Palestinian state should be realised through negotiations, White House says
Biden believes a Palestinian state should be achieved through negotiations, not unilateral recognition, the White House says.
“The president is a strong supporter of a two-state solution and has been throughout his career,” a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said. “He believes a Palestinian state should be realised through direct negotiations between the parties, not through unilateral recognition.”
The comments come after the leaders of Norway, Ireland and Spain said their countries will formally recognise Palestine as a state next week.
You've been negotiating for over half a century, it's clear one side is hell bent on preventing a Palestinian state from ever happening. Your negotiations aren't going anywhere as long as you keep backing Netanyahu with your ironclad genocide support.
