The US secretary of state Antony Blinken asked the US state department to conduct a review of the present policy options on possible US and international recognition of the state of Palestine, news outlet Axios reported citing US officials familiar with the developments.
The US officials said there is no policy change. For decades the US has followed the policy to oppose recognition of Palestine as a state both bilaterally and as well as in UN bodies. It has stressed that Palestinian statehood should only be achieved through direct talks between Israel and Palestine.
“(It) has been long-standing US policy that any recognition of a Palestinian state must come through direct negotiations between the parties rather than through unilateral recognition at the UN. That policy has not changed,” one of the officials was quoted as saying by Axios.
One official told the news agency that efforts to find a way out of the Gaza war has led to the rethinking of a lot of old US policies. The Biden administration is planning to utilise the Saudi Arabia-Israel normalisation of ties deal to the creation of a pathway for the establishment of a Palestinian state following the end of the war in Gaza.
Saudi officials on several occasions have clarified that any normalisation agreement with Israel would have to include the clause of creating an “irrevocable” pathway toward a Palestinian state.
One US official told the news agency that the Biden administration is now thinking that the recognition of a Palestinian state should possibly be the first step in negotiations to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict instead of the last.
The US is exploring several options. It could bilaterally recognise the state of Palestine, it may also use its veto to block the UN Security Council from admitting Palestine as a full UN member state or it can also encourage other countries to recognize Palestine.
Blinken has asked the state department to review these options. He also asked officials to review what a demilitarised Palestinian state would look like based on other models from around the world.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed the idea of demilitarised Palestinian state several times between 2009 and 2015.
The purpose of the review is to survey and find options for implementation of a two-state solution in such a manner that assures security for Israel.
The US State Department is in the process of coming up with a big menu of options and Blinken did not sign off on any new policy.
Netanyahu is a staunch critic of a two-state solution and has recently dismissed appeals for Palestinian sovereignty.
Israel vehemently opposes the recognition of a Palestinian state by individual countries or the UN. Netanyahu’s government, with far-right elements, resists even minor gestures toward the Palestinians and US officials have acknowledged the slim likelihood of agreeing to a roadmap for a future Palestinian state with the current makeup of the Israeli government.
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