RPT - Palestine Expects Wider Recognition Of Statehood Bid In 2023 - Foreign Minister

RAMALLAH (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th February, 2023) The Palestinian drive for international recognition of their nation-state within the pre-1967 borders may receive support from nine other countries, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Maliki told Sputnik in an interview.

"We expect in 2023 nine countries to recognize the state of Palestine," the minister said.

At least 138 countries of the 193 United Nations member states support Palestinians' right to self-determination. Palestine won a "non-member statehood" status at the UN General Assembly in 2012 but the goal of negotiating a "two-state solution" with Israelis has eluded it for decades.

The issue of attaining statehood was an "ongoing matter" for Palestinians, Al-Maliki added. He plans to go to an African country in the next two weeks that he hopes will side with Palestine in its quest for independence.

Some seven or eight countries in the European Union and one American nation are also considering recognizing the Palestinian state, according to the minister.

Al-Maliki insisted that the best time to recognize Palestine is now in order to send a message to Israel's new far-right government, which opposes Palestinian statehood and instead seeks expanding Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian lands.

"We are telling them that the best time for recognition is now with the current Israeli government. The right response to the current Israeli government and the current Israeli policies against the Palestinians is for them to come forward and recognize," he stressed.