Portugal’s Foreign Minister, Paulo Rangel, announced on Sunday that the country has now recognized the state of Palestine.
“Recognizing the state of Palestine is the realization of a fundamental, constant and fundamental line of Portuguese foreign policy,” Rangel told reporters at the headquarters of Portugal’s permanent mission to the United Nations in New York.
He said that “Portugal supports the two-state solution as the only path to a just and lasting peace… a ceasefire is urgent,” adding that Hamas “cannot have any form of control in Gaza or outside it” and demanding the release of all hostages.
Rangel also stressed that recognizing the state of Palestine “does not erase the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza,” and he also condemned the famine situation there, the destruction and “expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.”
Portugal joins Britain, Canada and Australia, which earlier on Sunday formalized the recognition of the Palestinian state.