Australia joins two-state call

TDT | agencies

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The global movement to recognise a Palestinian state received yesterday a big push with Australia declaring it will recognise it at the UN General Assembly in September.

International concern is growing about the plight of the more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where the fighting has triggered a dire humanitarian crisis and warnings of mass starvation.

“The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is rightly at the forefront of the global agenda,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Monday

Humanity’s best hope

“A  two-state solution is humanity’s best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Midd l e E a s t a n d to bring an end to the conflict,  suffering and starvation in Gaza,” he told reporters in Canberra.

“Until Israeli and Palestinian statehood is permanent, peace can only be temporary.

“Australia will recognise the right of the Palestinian people to a state of their own. We will work with the international community to make this  right a reality.”

“There is a  moment of opportunity here, and Australia will work with the international community to seize it,” Albanese said.

He said that Australia’s decision was predicated on reassurances from the Palestinian Authority that there would be “no role for Hamas in any future Palestinian state”.

The Palestinian Authority, however, does not have a presence in Gaza, which has been governed by Hamas for nearly two decades.

France announced on 24 July 2025 that it will recognize Palestine in September 2025 at the United Nations General Assembly. Malta is also slated to formally recognize Palestine around the same period in September 2025.

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters said his country would carefully consider whether to do the same over the next month. He added that New Zealand’s recognition of a Palestinian state was a “matter of when, not if”.

Israel’s offensive has killed at least 61,430 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.