guardian.co.uk,
Associated Press, Wednesday 30 November 2011
Iceland has
become the first western european country to recognise Palestine as an
independent state.
The
Icelandic parliament said in a statement on its website that it had passed a
motion with 38 of 63 votes in favor of a resolution to recognse Palestine
"as an independent and sovereign state" based on borders predating
the six day war of 1967.
"Iceland
is the first country in western europe to take this step," Ossur
Skarphedinsson, the minister for foreign affairs, told RUV, the Icelandic
national broadcasting service. He said the vote had given him the authority to
make a formal declaration on the government's behalf, but before doing so he
would discuss the move with other Nordic countries.
The
resolution, which coincided with the UN's annual day of solidarity with the
Palestinian people, recognised the Palestine Liberation Organisation as the
legal authority for a Palestinian state and urged Israel and Palestine to reach
a peace agreement.
The vote
comes shortly after the Palestinians successfully gained admission to the UN's
cultural agency Unesco. Iceland was among 11 European Union members to support
that move, which was part of a larger effort to gain recognition as a state in
the world body.
However,
the suspected failure to win the required support of nine of the security
council's 15 members, and a promise from the US that it would veto any council
resolution endorsing membership, threats to stall the move for full UN
membership.
In a
message to the UN on Tuesday, the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, reaffirmed
Palestine's bid for membership, saying it should complement peace negotiations
provided Israel was prepared to negotiate on the basis of 1967 borders.
In a
message read out by Palestinian UN observer Riyad Mansour, Abbas said
Palestine's decision to apply to join the UN "is our legitimate
right" based on the 1947 UN resolution to partition Palestine into two
states.
Icelandic
MP Amal Tamimi, who was born in Palestine, welcomed her parliament's move as a
first step.
"I
hope that more countries will follow suit," she said.
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