Foreign Minister says his government was what “so far has done the solution of both states”
Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel said on Monday in London, not having identified any obstacle to Portugal’s recognition of Palestine as a state and promised news for next week.
“The process of auditioning of parliamentary groups in the Assembly of the Republic is now concluded. I will have to speak once again, I and the Prime Minister and the President of the Republic,” said Monday, after a meeting with British homologous, Yvette Cooper.
Rangel said that “so far there is no fact that will interfere with this path to recognition,” noting that “the process is underway and will have developments for the week.”
The head of Portuguese diplomacy confirmed that this issue was one of those discussed during the meeting with Yvette Cooper, as the United Kingdom is also considering recognizing Palestine as a state during the United Nations General Assembly, which takes place at the end of the month in New York.
“We have always been [em] Tuning, namely with France, Luxembourg and Belgium, throughout this year and a half “and also with the United Kingdom,” to the point that the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time [David Lammy] Having informed us in advance of what would be the decision that the English government would make the next day, “he said.
Last week, the Portuguese executive heard the parties with parliamentary seat on the possibility of Portugal recognizing the state of Palestine in the United Nations General Assembly.
Asked about Portugal’s criticism of Israel’s attack on Qatar on 9 September, killing five elements of the Palestinian Islamite Movement Hamas and a local police, Rangel rejected accusations of duality of criteria.
“If I spoke to me from previous governments, they could be accused of this. This government was the government that has so far done most by the solution of the two states. Portugal has always been in favor of the solution of both states since it is a democracy and even before,” he argued.
In this sense, Rangel revealed that he gave instructions to the Portuguese delegation in the UN to intervene in the debate on Tuesday on this topic to the EU part to emphasize the condemnation of this “extraterritorial action of Israel”.
“One thing is the fight against Hamas as a terrorist organization, which there is no doubt about it. Another thing is to make foray into the territory of a state that is still a mediating state” of peace negotiations, he justified.
The international agenda dominated the meeting with Cooper, and the visits of the Prime Minister Luís Montenegro and the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, China and Japan, and also the visit of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, to the United Kingdom this week.
“It is a very important visit to the UK, which is a traditional ally and, I would say, intimate with the United States, but it is also very important for Europe and even to the European Union [e] For the born in general, “said Rangel.
The Portuguese minister hopes that “in the issue of Ukraine and, eventually, the economic pressure to be exerted on Ukraine, there may be some results.”
