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Japan considers formal recognition of Palestinian state, says top diplomat

Saturday, 13 July 2024 1:05 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 13 July 2024 1:05 PM ]

Palestinians wave national flags as they watch a live-screening of President Mahmoud Abbas' speech followed by the raising of the Palestinian flag at the United Nations headquarters in New York, the United States, in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah. (File photo by AFP)

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa says her country is considering plans to formally the State of Palestine, taking into account the progress of the so-called peace process in West Asia.

During a meeting in the capital Tokyo, the 71-year-old Japanese politician stated that her government supports the purported two-state solution to the decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

She said Japan understands the Palestinians' aspiration for the establishment of an independent sovereign state, and that it supports the ongoing efforts to achieve such a goal.

“With regard to recognition of the Palestinian state, we want to continue to address this issue comprehensively, taking into account how to advance the peace process,” the top Japanese diplomat stated.

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Earlier, Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit had called on Japan to recognize a Palestinian state.

“That is the only solution; the apartheid, annexation and oppression committed by Israel are not feasible solutions,” he said at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo, where he attended the 5th Japan-Arab Economic Forum.

Aboul Gheit said the Israeli occupation, oppression and persecution of Palestinians and Arabs since 1967 caused Hamas resistance movement to attack the Israeli regime in a large-scale offensive, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Storm, on October 7.

“Israel has the urge and desire to suppress Palestinian hopes of independence,” he added. “We, however, are calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

The Palestinians hope to establish an independent state of their own in the Gaza Strip and West Bank with East al-Quds as its capital.

Israel occupied East al-Quds during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980, claiming all of al-Quds as its “eternal and undivided” capital in a move never recognized by the international community.

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