British Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a statement inside No. 10 Downing Street on the day the Cabinet was recalled to discuss the situation in Gaza, in London, Tuesday. Toby Melville/Pool Reuters/AP hide caption
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Toby Melville/Pool Reuters/AP
The United Kingdom plans to recognize a Palestinian state in September unless Israel commits to peace in the Gaza Strip, stopping the annexation of the West Bank and other measures, the British prime minister’s office said Tuesday.
This follows an announcement last week from French President Emmanuel Macron that France planned to recognize a Palestinian state in September at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
“We are determined to protect the viability of the two-state solution, and so we will recognise the state of Palestine in September before UNGA,” the British prime minister’s office said in a statement, “unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza and commits to a long term sustainable peace, including through allowing the UN to restart without delay the supply of humanitarian support to the people of Gaza to end starvation, agreeing to a ceasefire, and making clear there will be no annexations in the West Bank.”
The statement also said the U.K. backs a peace plan in Gaza that’s accompanied by the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the removal of Hamas leadership from the territory “as key steps towards a negotiated two-state solution.”
The news that the U.K. could join France, and more than 140 other countries that already recognize Palestine, came as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer held an emergency Cabinet meeting Tuesday to discuss plans for peace and aid in Gaza.
It follows a meeting between Starmer and President Trump on Monday in Scotland, where the U.S. president signaled he would not object to a move by the U.K. to recognize a Palestinian state.
This is a developing story, which will be updated.