The U.K. is considering a push to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations, Foreign Secretary David Cameron said, as he tries to sell a plan aimed at ending the war in Gaza.
The former prime minister — drafted into the foreign affairs brief by his boss Rishi Sunak last year — said the move could bring about “irreversible progress to a two-state solution.”
“We should be starting to set out what a Palestinian state would look like – what it would comprise, how it would work,” he said in remarks to the Conservative Middle East Council in the House of Commons on Monday night.
“As that happens, we, with allies, will look at the issue of recognizing a Palestinian state, including at the United Nations,” he added. “This could be one of the things that helps to make this process irreversible.”
Cameron is on a fresh tour of the Middle East to try and push a five-point plan to quell the latest war between Israel and Hamas.
The U.K. is among those continuing to argue that a two-state solution is the only viable long-term solution to the conflict. But such a proposal faces fierce resistance from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has called for “full Israeli security control over the entire area in the west of Jordan,” a move he made clear is “contrary to a Palestinian state.”
The U.K. government has previously said only that it will “recognize a Palestinian state at a time when it best serves the objective of peace” and has rejected calls from British lawmakers to go further.
Cameron’s five-point plan includes a push for a new international support package for Gaza; the formation of a new Palestinian government for the West Bank and Gaza; removing Hamas’ ability to attack Israel; releasing Israeli hostages held by Hamas; and the removal of “key Hamas leaders” from Gaza.