Norway and a core group of EU countries will formally recognize the state of Palestine soon and they are pushing for the EU to do so as a bloc as well.
Norway, Spain, Ireland, Malta and Slovenia are working jointly to get more EU countries on board as a means to give the two-state peace process momentum.
Spain will recognise Palestinian statehood by July, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told journalists during a Middle East tour, according to several reports published on Tuesday in Spanish media.
According to the reports, Sanchez said he expected events to unfold in the conflict ahead of the European Parliament elections in early June and highlighted ongoing debates at the United Nations.
He expected Spain to extend recognition to the Palestinians by July, he said, adding that he believed there would soon be a "critical mass" within the European Union to push several member states to adopt the same position, according to EFE.
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And Australia may also recognize Palestine soon and could help bring Japan and South Korea on board with most of the rest of Asia Pacific already recognizing Palestine.
Australia's foreign minister Penny Wong said Canberra would consider recognition of a Palestinian state, a shift in policy as the international community looks for a two-state solution to end the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
In a speech on Tuesday evening, Wong backed comments by Britain's foreign minister David Cameron who has said that recognising a Palestinian state, including at the United Nations, would make a two-state solution irreversible.
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There are at least 139 countries that already recognize the state of Palestine.
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And there are already embassies and other high-level Palestinian diplomatic missions of various degrees vis-a-vis Europe and around the world.
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The UN has also taken up the Palestinian statehood issue again recently as well. The state of Palestine is already a non-voting member of the UN and full admission of the state of Palestine is currently in a UNSC committee but the US is expected to veto the resolution on the vote for full membership of Palestine. The other countries are voting on
1967 borders, but the US wants to include the illegal settlements and other facts on the ground to disregard international laws against illegal annexation to determine the borders.