LONDON: The Washington administration has no intention of recognizing the Palestinian state and deems it necessary to destroy the radical H...
LONDON: The Washington administration has no intention of recognizing the Palestinian state and deems it necessary to destroy the radical Hamas movement, Vice President JD Vance told British Foreign Minister David Lammy.
"We have no plans to recognize a Palestinian state. I don't know what it would mean to really recognize a Palestinian state given the lack of a functional government there," Vance said at a meeting at Lammy's country residence in the south of London.
Speaking about the possible recognition of Palestine by London, Vance noted: "It's one of the things that we're to talk about. Obviously, the United Kingdom is going to make its decision. What the President has made very clear is our two goals are very simple right now, vis a vis the situation in Israel and Gaza. Number one, it's we want to make it so that Hamas cannot attack innocent Israeli civilians ever again, and we think that has to come through the eradication of Hamas.
"Second, the President has been very moved by these terrible images of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. So, we want to make sure that we solve that problem."
On July 29, London said it would recognize the Palestinian state at the September UN General Assembly session if Israel continued to obstruct the delivery of humanitarian supplies to the Gaza Strip and did not end its military operation in the enclave.
On July 24, French President Emmanuel Macron said Paris would recognize the State of Palestine at the same UN General Assembly session in September.
The situation in the Middle East soured after Hamas militants penetrated into the Israeli territory on October 7, 2023 killing and kidnapping residents of the border settlements. Israel retaliated by a military operation in the enclave trying to destroy Hamas’ military and political structures and free all the abductees. In March, Israel broke a January ceasefire with massive strikes on the enclave. Several rounds of negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States flopped.
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