Spain will recognize Palestinian statehood by July, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told reporters during a tour of the Middle East, according to several reports in Spanish media on Tuesday.
State news agency EFE and newspapers El Pais and La Vanguardia quoted Sanchez as making informal remarks to visiting journalists on Monday night in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on the first day of a tour of Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
According to reports, Sánchez said that he expects developments in the conflict ahead of the elections for the European Parliament in early June and recalled the current debates in the United Nations.
He expects that Spain will recognize the Palestinians’ statehood by July, he said, adding that he believes that there will soon be a “critical mass” within the European Union that will encourage several member states to take the same position, reports EFE.
At the European Council meeting on March 22, Sanchez said he had agreed with the leaders of Ireland, Malta and Slovenia to “take the first steps” towards recognizing the statehood declared by the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip.
At the time, he said he expected the recognition to take place during the current four-year term of the legislature, which began last year.
In response, Israel told the four countries that their plan was a “reward to terrorism” that would reduce the chances of a negotiated solution to the Gaza conflict.
Arab states and the EU agreed at a meeting in Spain in November that a two-state solution is the answer to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Since 1988, 139 of the 193 UN member states have recognized Palestinian statehood, Reuters reports.
