UK Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron stated that the UK might officially acknowledge a Palestinian state following a Gaza ceasefire, regardless of the potentially lengthy negotiation outcomes.
Cameron, during his visit to Lebanon on Thursday, aimed to ease regional tensions. He specified that recognition would not occur while Hamas controlled Gaza but could transpire during ongoing Israeli negotiations with Palestinian leaders.
UK recognition of an independent state of Palestine, including in the United Nations, “can’t come at the start of the process, but it doesn’t have to be the very end of the process,” said Cameron.
“It could be something that we consider as this process, as this advance to a solution, becomes more real,” Cameron added. “What we need to do is give the Palestinian people a horizon towards a better future, the future of having a state of their own.”
At a Westminster reception on Tuesday, Lord Cameron said that the UK has a responsibility to set out what a Palestinian state would look like.
Lord Cameron emphasized the need to provide the Palestinian people with the ability to “see that there is going to be irreversible progress to a two-state solution and crucially the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
He said, “We have a responsibility there because we should be starting to set out what a Palestinian state would look like, what it would comprise, how it would work, and crucially, looking at the issue, that as that happens, we with allies will look at the issue of recognizing a Palestinian state, including at the United Nations.”
Britain, the US, and other Western countries have supported the idea of an independent Palestine existing alongside Israel as a solution to the region’s most intractable conflict but have said Palestinian independence should come as part of a negotiated settlement. There have been no substantive negotiations since 2009.
Cameron said the first step must be a “pause in the fighting” in Gaza, eventually turning into “a permanent, sustainable ceasefire.”
He said for the UK to recognize a Palestinian state, the leaders of Hamas would need to leave Gaza, as “you can’t have a two-state solution with Gaza still controlled by the people responsible for 7 October,” referring to the deadly Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Hamas has, so far, taken the position that its leaders would not leave the enclave as part of a ceasefire deal.
