The landlocked country of Luxembourg in Western Europe intends to recognize a Palestinian state, its government informed a parliamentary commission on Monday.
According to local reports, Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden and Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel told the lawmakers that their decision on Palestinian statehood would be finalized at the U.N. General Assembly annual debate, which is scheduled to kick off next week in New York.
Bordered by France, Belgium and Germany, Luxembourg has long rejected calls to recognize “Palestine,” having argued in June that the move must be tied to a negotiated peace deal.
The announcement comes after several countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Australia, announced that they would recognize a Palestinian state this month at the United Nations.
Luxembourg’s RTL Today cited Alternative Democratic Reform Party lawmaker Fred Keup as slamming the move as a “180-degree turn.”
“It has always been said that conditions must be met in order to grant recognition for Palestine. These have not been fulfilled,” Keup stated, in reference to previous demands by Bettel that the Palestinian Authority hold elections, dismantle Hamas and reform its educational system.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told the BBC on Sept. 7 that the France- and Saudi-led drive to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations 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.
