The Japanese Embassy in Israel said on Wednesday that, contrary to reports, no official decision had yet been made on whether Tokyo would recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations next week.
“As of now, there is no official announcement on behalf of the Japanese Government,” the mission wrote in a response to a JNS query, noting it was “aware” of local reports that Tokyo had abandoned the move.
Earlier on Wednesday, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun daily cited anonymous government sources as saying that the Asian nation would not recognize “Palestine” for now, a decision likely taken to maintain relations with the Trump administration and to avoid a hardening of Jerusalem’s stance.
Washington has reportedly asked Tokyo via multiple diplomatic channels to refrain from recognition, countering strong pressure from French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.
Speaking at a news briefing on Tuesday, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said that his government had been carrying out a “comprehensive assessment, including appropriate timing and modalities, of the issue of recognizing Palestinian statehood.”
The Japanese reports came after several countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Australia, announced that they would recognize a Palestinian state next week at the United Nations.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told the BBC on Sept. 7 that the France- and Saudi-led drive has already had “disastrous consequences.”
“I wish they would’ve thought about the implications,” Huckabee said in the interview, noting the move would violate the Oslo Accords signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in the 1990s.
“I don’t know why people don’t understand that unilaterally declaring a Palestinian state is a violation of the Oslo Accords that everybody thought would lead to a Palestinian state,” said the diplomat.
Huckabee noted that Jerusalem was considering extending its sovereignty to “more parts of Judea and Samaria” in response.
“So whatever the thought was, however noble it may have seemed, it has had disastrous consequences that have proven to do exactly the opposite of what many of the European countries have thought would be a great idea,” he said.
