(29 Jul 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ramallah, West Bank – 29 July 2025
1. SOUNDBITE: (English) Omar Awadallah, assistant to Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister:
"We welcome the U.K. announcement about the recognition of the state of Palestine. We think that U.K. has a historic responsibility toward the question of Palestine. If the U.K. fulfil and implement the announcement in September, then they are correcting a historic injustice about the Palestinian people and their rights. We believe that this announcement and the recognition of U.K. of the state of Palestine will bring justice and peace for the region."
STORYLINE:
The Palestinian Authority welcomed on Tuesday an announcement by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on recognising a Palestinian state.
Starmer said Tuesday that the U.K. will recognize a Palestinian state in September unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza, allows the U.N. to bring in aid and takes other steps toward long-term peace.
Omar Awadallah, assistant to the Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister, said that if the U.K. implemented the announcement in September it would correct an "historic injustice about the Palestinian people and their rights."
Starmer, who is under mounting domestic pressure over the issue as scenes of hunger in Gaza horrify many Britons, convened a rare summertime Cabinet meeting to discuss the situation in Gaza.
It came after he discussed the crisis with U.S. President Donald Trump during a meeting in Scotland on Monday.
The president told reporters he didn’t mind Starmer “taking a position” on statehood.
Starmer said Tuesday that Britain will recognize a state of Palestine before the United Nations General Assembly, "unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, agree to a ceasefire and commit to a long-term, sustainable peace, reviving the prospect of a two-state solution.
"And this includes allowing the UN to restart the supply of aid, and making clear there will be no annexations in the West Bank," he said.
It seems highly unlikely that the government of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu could meet the conditions, which cut to the heart of the most intractable issues in the conflict.
Netanyahu rejects the two-state solution on both nationalistic and security grounds.
Israel’s foreign ministry said it rejected the British statement.
“The shift in the British government’s position at this time, following the French move and internal political pressures, constitutes a reward for Hamas and harms efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and a framework for the release of hostages," the ministry said on X.
Starmer also repeated U.K. demands that Hamas release all the hostages it holds, agree to a ceasefire, disarm and “accept that they will play no part in the government of Gaza.”
AP video shot by Imad Isseid
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