Luxembourg announces plans to recognise Palestine at UN meeting

Luxembourg has become the latest Western country to announce plans to recognise a Palestinian state later this month.

The country will make a final decision after consultations with other countries at the UN General Assembly, which opens on 23 September.

Prime Minister Luc Frieden and Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel announced a parliamentary commission on Monday, according to local media.

The small European nation has long backed a two-state solution to the Middle East crisis but has so far stopped short of formally recognising Palestinian sovereignty.

Luxembourg is the seventh Western country to declare plans to recognise Palestine, following France, the UK, Canada, Australia, Belgium and Malta.

Portugal’s centre-right government has said it is considering recognition and has held talks with other political parties and the country’s president.

Israel fears that the upcoming UN General Assembly could spark a wave of countries recognising Palestine.

Government officials expect as many as 17 states to take that step next week, according to Israeli media.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government has threatened to respond by annexing almost all of the occupied West Bank.

The United States remains firmly opposed to European recognition of Palestine.

Germany, a close ally of Israel, has ruled out recognition but last week supported a UN resolution calling for "tangible, timebound, and irreversible steps" towards a two-state solution.

Only 10 countries voted against the resolution, which stemmed from a renewed diplomatic push by Saudi Arabia and France to resolve the conflict.

Japan's government has also come under pressure, with nearly half of lawmakers in parliament last week urging it to recognise Palestine.

At present, 147 of the UN’s 193 member states recognise Palestine as a sovereign state.