EU's Borrell says 'strong' PA needed for peace

Norway hands papers for recognition of Palestinian state to PA prime minister

Mohammad Mustafa lauds recognition, hopes more will follow, as he holds meetings in Brussels with Norwegian and Spanish foreign ministers, EU foreign policy chief

PA Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, left, speaks after receiving a document handed over by Norway's Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, right, prior to a meeting for talks on the Middle East in Brussels, May 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
PA Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, left, speaks after receiving a document handed over by Norway's Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, right, prior to a meeting for talks on the Middle East in Brussels, May 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Norway on Sunday handed diplomatic papers to the Palestinian Authority’s prime minister in the latest step toward recognizing a Palestinian state, a largely symbolic move that has infuriated Israel.

Ireland and Spain made a pledge in concert with Norway last week to recognize a Palestinian state, a move that increases Israel’s isolation more than seven months into its grinding war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza.

The handover of papers by Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide to the PA  prime minister was made in Brussels, where Mohammad Mustafa is also meeting with foreign ministers of European Union nations and high-level EU officials on Monday to drum up support for the Palestinians. Norway itself is not part of the EU.

“Recognition means a lot for us. It is the most important thing that anybody can do for the Palestinian people,” said Mustafa in Brussels on Sunday. “It is a great deal for us.”

Mustafa also met Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Sunday.

During his meeting with Albares, Mustafa said the Palestinians “want to have every country in Europe to do the same,” adding that recognition of a Palestinian state addresses “the injustice that has been inflicted on the Palestinian people for decades.”

Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, Jose Manuel Albares, (L) shakes hands with PA Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa (R) during their meeting at the Permanent Representation of Spain to the European Union in Brussels, on May 26, 2024. (Simon Wohlfahrt / AFP)

“We hope that this momentum of recognitions and initiatives will continue,” Mustafa added.

The Spanish foreign minister said that recognizing a state of Palestine “is justice for the Palestinian people [and] the best guarantee of security for Israel.”

Ahead of his own meeting with Mustafa, Borrell said Sunday that a “strong” Palestinian Authority is needed to bring peace in the Middle East.

“A functional Palestinian Authority is in Israel’s interest too, because in order to make peace, we need a strong Palestinian Authority, not a weaker one,” Borrell said, just before talks with Mustafa on how the administration can be built up to take over Gaza rule from Hamas.

Later Sunday, Mustafa was slated to have further talks with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan.

On Monday he will have another meeting in Brussels with the Spanish, Norwegian and Irish ministers. And on Wednesday he is scheduled to visit Spain.

File: EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell attends a meeting with European and Arab foreign ministers held in Riyadh on April 29, 2024. (Fayez Nureldine / AFP)

The formal recognition by Norway, Spain, and Ireland is planned for Tuesday.

Some 140 countries — more than two-thirds of the United Nations — recognize a Palestinian state but a majority of the 27 EU nations still do not. Several have said they would recognize it when the conditions are right.

The EU, the United States and Britain, among others, back the idea of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel but say it should come as part of a negotiated settlement.

Belgium, which holds the EU presidency, has said that first the Israeli hostages held by Hamas need to be freed and the fighting in Gaza must end. Some other governments favor a new initiative toward a two-state solution, 15 years after negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed.

Sunday’s handover of papers came only two days after the United Nations’ top court ordered Israel to “immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

Days earlier, the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court requested arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with Hamas officials.

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