Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced his country's intention to take a step towards recognizing the Palestinian state after sessions to be held next week at the United Nations regarding Palestine's application for full UN membership.

Sanchez said - in a press conference with his Portuguese counterpart, Luis Montenegro, after their meeting in Madrid yesterday, Monday - "The Palestinian state must be recognized. We will wait next week and take a step after the voting sessions at the United Nations."

The Spanish Prime Minister explained that the international community has been “too late” so far with regard to recognizing the Palestinian state, and added, “If you do not accept the existence of Palestine, you cannot recognize it,” stressing that “Spain’s position is very clear and we will also support full membership of Palestine in the United Nations.” ".

Sanchez stated that only recognition of Palestine could guarantee peaceful coexistence and stop the cycle of violence, pointing out that he had spoken about this matter with various European Union and outside the Union countries, and “Spain will take this step no matter what happens because we believe it is correct.”

In turn, the Portuguese Prime Minister expressed a conservative position and said that he supports full membership of Palestine in the United Nations, but will not go as far as some other countries to recognize the Palestinian state.

Montenegro, leader of the Portuguese Social Democratic Party and the Democratic Alliance, which formed the right-wing minority government after the early general elections in Portugal on March 10, is making his first official visit to Spain as Prime Minister.

The Spanish government said last Tuesday that Sanchez would meet with a number of his counterparts in the European Union next week to try to garner support for the recognition of a Palestinian state, while the Australian Foreign Ministry announced that Canberra would consider recognizing a Palestinian state.

Sanchez said in a briefing to Parliament last Wednesday, regarding his tour in the Middle East and his country’s intention to recognize Palestine as a state: Recognizing the Palestinian state is a geopolitical interest for Europe.

This comes in the wake of Spain, Ireland, Malta and Slovenia announcing last month that they would work jointly to recognize a Palestinian state, while Israel informed those countries that its initiative would be what it called a “reward for terrorism” that would - according to its claims - reduce the chances of reaching a solution. By negotiating a conflict that has been going on for generations.

The presidency of the UN Security Council announced last Thursday that no consensus had been reached regarding the Palestinian initiative to obtain full membership in the United Nations, despite the support of two-thirds of the members of the committee concerned with accepting new members to the Council. However, any member state in the Council can put to a vote a decision regarding this accession initiative. .

Last week, the Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, said, “All we ask is to take our legitimate place within the international community,” expressing his hope that the Security Council will vote on the 18th of this month.