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Sweden to recognise state of Palestine | |
(35 minutes later) | |
Sweden is to recognise the state of Palestine, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has said, the first long-term EU member country to do so. | |
"The conflict between Israel and Palestine can only be solved with a two-state solution," he said during his inaugural address in parliament. | |
It should be "negotiated in accordance with international law", he said. | |
Sweden last month voted out the centre-right Alliance coalition of Fredrik Reinfeldt after eight years. | |
That allowed the Social Democrats led by Mr Lofven to form a government with other parties on the left including the Greens. | |
Non-member observer state | |
"A two-state solution requires mutual recognition and a will to peaceful co-existence. Sweden will therefore recognise the state of Palestine," Mr Lofven said on Friday, without giving a timeline for the recognition. | |
Correspondents say that Sweden's move is likely to be strongly criticised by Israel and the US who argue that an independent Palestinian state should only emerge through negotiations. | |
The Palestinians have long sought to establish an independent, sovereign state in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip - occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six Day War. | |
The 1993 Oslo Accord between the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Israel led to mutual recognition. However, two decades of on-off peace talks have since failed to produce a permanent settlement. | |
In 2012, the UN General Assembly voted to upgrade the status of the Palestinians to that of a "non-member observer state". | |
It followed a failed bid to join the international body as a full member state in 2011 because of a lack of support in the UN Security Council. | |
There is no definitive EU position, but most of the bloc's 28 member states have refrained from officially recognising Palestinian statehood. | |
Those that have include Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. |