Lebanese ambassador tells UK time is right to recognise Palestine

Britain is urged to work with France on recognition ahead of UN Conference on a Two-State Solution in June

Protesters demonstrate against selling arms to Israel at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Tuesday. EPA

Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza

Lebanon’s ambassador to Britain has urged the government to formally recognise the Palestinian state to put “major momentum” into the peace process, stating “if not now when?”

There are growing suggestions that France and Britain might agree to jointly recognise the Palestinian state, leading Rami Mortada to tell MPs the opportunity must be seized now.

Pressure is mounting on the UK government to act before an international summit in June.

More than 70 Labour MPs and peers urged Prime Minister Keir Starmer to “work with France” on the recognition at the UN Conference on a Two-State Solution, in a letter that was made public on Tuesday.

UK recognition was needed as a “contribution to the cause of peace”, said the letter from Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East, written by its chairs Andrew Pakes and Sarah Owen, and privately co-signed by 67 MPs and six peers.

You are slaughtering the same people that you will have to live with. This forever war should end

Rami Mortada

French President Emmanuel Macron has said France would work towards recognition at the summit. The UK had the “opportunity to advance that cause” of the two-state solution through recognition, the letter said.

Mr Mortada was asked by parliament’s foreign affairs committee on Tuesday how recognition by the UK would affect the political process.

“If anyone asks me about timing, I say if not now, then when?” he told MPs. “A few months down the line whatever remains of this elusive two-state solution will totally vanish.”

Lebanese Ambassador Rami Mortada has urged the UK to recognise a Palestine state. Ian Davidson/Alamy Live News

If Britain joined with France and Saudi Arabia to recognise the state at the conference in Paris, “that will generate major momentum to put this ambition into action”.

“It is morally, politically and legally the right thing to do,” he said, adding that it would put Israelis and Palestinians on an “equal footing” and kickstart the peace process.

Mr Mortada said Israel should not be allowed to be the “spoiler” of moves for peace, especially when US President Donald Trump is in the region, and it would ultimately have to live with the Palestinian people that it was “slaughtering”.

The diplomat, who has been Lebanon’s ambassador in London since 2017, urged countries that were friends of Israel to advise it that its current policies were against its interests.

“Whoever feels friendship to Israel should give the right advice and that should be: what you are doing does not serve the long-term interest of your country and the future of the region. You are slaughtering the same people that you will have to live with. This forever war should end.”

Asked in parliament whether Britain would formally recognise a Palestinian state, Middle East minister Hamish Falconer said the coming months were “a period for diplomacy which will get us through to the next stage”.

The letter from MPs reminded Mr Starmer of his commitment to recognising a Palestinian state in the party’s manifesto before last year’s general election.

Though the manifesto stated recognition would happen as “part of a peace process”, the letter’s authors say that the reality on the ground has changed, making recognition “more pressing than ever”.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in April that the government was discussing recognition with Mr Macron, but “recognition is not an end in of itself and we will prefer recognition as a part of a process to two states”.

The UK government was taken to court over its arms sales to Israel on Tuesday. Mr Lammy imposed a partial ban on arms licences to Israel for weapons used in Gaza in September last year.

But campaigners say a full embargo is needed, in particular for the components for F-35 fighter jets which are being used by the Israeli military in Gaza.

Sacha Deshmukh, chief executive of Amnesty International UK, has said there is “clear evidence” that British weapons are contributing to war crimes in Gaza, even after the UK government last summer banned the export of some arms parts.

The UK government has said that it had no control over where the components for F-35s were used, and that ending its programme could compromise its support for the defence of Ukraine.

Speaking at a rally in front of the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Mr Deshmukh said: “We think that there's such clear evidence of the use of weapons parts from the UK being used in war crimes, including in genocide.

“We don't believe that there's credibility to the arguments that they've made for why there should be continued export arms, including, in particular, the F-35 parts that come from the UK.”