Israel fumes over foreign minister's Palestine position

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http://www.elpais.com/articulo/english/Israel/fumes/over/foreign/minister/s/Palestine/position/elpepueng/20110822elpeng_9/Ten

Israel on Monday reacted angrily to comments made by Foreign Minister Trinidad Jiménez in favor of the recognition of Palestine. The chief of the European section of Israel's Foreign Ministry summoned Spanish Ambassador Álvaro Iranzo to relay his displeasure. Israel's deputy foreign minister, Daniel Ayalon, is due in Madrid on Wednesday and will meet with his counterpart, Juan Antonio Yáñez, to "explain Israel's position on the Palestinian initiative."

On September 2, EU foreign ministers will meet in Sopot, Poland to discuss, among other issues, the Syrian crisis and the war in Libya. The thorniest matter on the table, however, is likely to be the recognition of the state of Palestine, which is up for vote in both the UN's Security Council and General Assembly in September. The EU's 27 foreign ministers are still heavily divided on the subject, and Jiménez aims to broker an agreement in the Sopot meeting in which a majority of Europe's foreign ministers support "moving forward with the recognition of the state of Palestine."

On the other hand, Spain's foreign minister told EL PAÍS in an interview conducted last week that a failure to give a sign could generate "a great deal of frustration among the Palestinian people." What follows is a translation of the interview published in Spanish on Sunday:

Question. The UN Assembly will vote on whether to recognize Palestine or not in September. You are pushing for a consensus among your European counterparts before this. How do you plan to achieve this?

[Firebrand Gary]

1. Can I ask a question.

Foreign policy on Israel, Palestine and the ongoing debate over the two state solution is something I need to study more. Can I ask a question which I may already know the answer to. The US has a long standing, binding relationship with Israel. That being said

Is it outlandish to ask if there is a chance that the US will recognize Palestine as a state in the Security council or UN General assembly?

[oberliner]

2. The US has said that it would not do so under these circumstances

The US policy (at this point) is that a Palestinian state should be established via negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis instead.