Canada will recognize a Palestinian state at the U.N. General Assembly in September, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced in a dramatic policy shift Wednesday, urging that it was necessary to preserve the two-state solution.
“Canada intends to recognize the State of Palestine at the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2025,” Carney said.
With Wednesday’s announcement, Carney positioned Canada alongside France, after President Emmanuel Macron said his country would formally recognize a Palestinian state during the U.N. meeting, the most powerful European nation to announce such a move.
Macron’s announcement drew condemnation from Israel, while U.S. President Donald Trump dismissed the decision as pointless.
Carney said his decision was informed by Canada’s “long-standing” belief in a two-state solution to the decadeslong Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“That possibility of a two-state solution is being eroded before our eyes,” the prime minister told reporters in Ottawa.
He referenced Israel’s “ongoing failure” to prevent humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza amid its war against Hamas, as well as the expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank and Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.
“For decades, it was hoped that (a two-state solution) would be achieved as part of a peace process built around a negotiated settlement between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority,” he said.
“Regrettably, this approach is no longer tenable.”
Be First to Comment