Spain poised to announce Palestininian state recognition date

MADRID: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he will on Wednesday announce the date on which Madrid will recognise a Palestinian state along with several EU partners.

“We are in the process of coordinating with other countries so that we can make a joint declaration,” Sanchez said Friday in an interview with private Spanish television station La Sexta when asked if this step would be taken Tuesday as announced by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

“I think on the 22nd of May…I shall be able to clarify before parliament the date on which Spain will recognise the Palestinian state,” he added.

Sanchez said in March that Spain and Ireland, along with Slovenia and Malta, had agreed to take their first steps towards recognition of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, seeing a two-state solution as essential for lasting peace.

Borrell told Spanish public radio last week that Spain, Ireland and Slovenia planned to symbolically recognise a Palestinian state on May 21, saying he had been given this date by Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares.

Ireland’s Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said Tuesday that Dublin was certain to recognise Palestinian statehood by the end of the month but the “specific date is still fluid”.

Israel has said plans for Palestinian recognition constitute a “prize for terrorism” that would reduce the chances of a negotiated resolution to the Gaza conflict, which began on October 7 when Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel.