June 5 () –
The leader of the Portuguese Socialist Party (PS), Pedro Nuno Santos, stated this Tuesday that Portugal should “immediately” recognize the State of Palestine, considering that it would be an “important political signal” and a contribution to peace in the Middle East.
“In this difficult moment for the lives of all Palestinians, it is important that we be consistent. If we defend the existence of two States, we cannot limit ourselves to recognizing only one of them. We must immediately recognize the State of Palestine,” he said during a rally for the European elections.
The leader of the PS considers that Portugal should join “Spain and other countries that have already done so and have recognized the State of Palestine”, this being an action “against moral duplicity”, according to statements collected by the Lusa news agency.
“It is time for Portugal to take this step, it is an important political signal that we must give to the world, that we owe it to Israel, it is the contribution that we can make to peace in the Middle East,” he said.
A few weeks ago, when the debate was created on the continent for the recognition of the State of Palestine in the face of the decision of Spain, Ireland and Norway to do the same, the Portuguese president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, maintained that it was not yet “the time “and that when it was “appropriate” that decision would be “made”, since “the Portuguese position is very clear” in defending “for a long time, in line with the United Nations, the existence of two peoples and two States.”
For his part, the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, distanced himself from the position of these countries, arguing that for the moment they do not want to go that far and that they prefer that the step be taken multilaterally, within the framework of the EU or the UN.
After the announcement by Spain, Ireland and Norway, Slovenia has also joined the recognition. Until this year, there were nine EU Member States that recognized Palestine. Eight of them – Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania and Slovakia – took the step in 1988, before entering the EU, while Sweden did so alone in 2014, fulfilling an electoral promise. of the social democrats.
Most countries that have recognized Palestine are located in Africa, Asia and South America. However, this recognition has not allowed Palestine to become a full member of the UN, since it needs the approval of the UN Security Council. The last attempt to gain the support of the Security Council occurred on April 18, but was frustrated after the United States veto.
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