Top UK diplomat Cameron: No recognition of Palestinian state until Hamas out of Gaza

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron says his country could officially recognize a Palestinian state after a ceasefire in Gaza without waiting for the outcome of what could be years-long talks between Israel and the Palestinians on a two-state solution.

UK recognition of an independent state of Palestine, including in the United Nations, “can’t come at the start of the process, but it doesn’t have to be the very end of the process,” Cameron, a former British prime minister, tells The Associated Press.

“It could be something that we consider as this process, as this advance to a solution, becomes more real,” Cameron says. “What we need to do is give the Palestinian people a horizon towards a better future, the future of having a state of their own.”

That prospect is “absolutely vital for the long-term peace and security of the region,” he says.

Cameron says the first step must be a “pause in the fighting” in Gaza that would eventually turn into “a permanent, sustainable ceasefire.”

He adds that in order for his country to recognize a Palestinian state, the leaders of the Hamas terror group would need to leave Gaza “because you can’t have a two-state solution with Gaza still controlled by the people responsible for October 7,” referring to the deadly Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.

Hamas has so far taken the position that its leaders would not leave the enclave as part of a ceasefire deal.