Uruguay officially recognizes Palestinian state

JP: 

Uruguay on Tuesday officially recognized a Palestinian state, according to a statement released by the Uruguayan Foreign Minister Luis Almagro, AFP reported.

The South American country now joins a list of 10 other countries in the continent that have extended recognition to a Palestinian state.

Also on Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said  that France will not recognize a Palestinian state on its own, but the possibility of the entire European Union doing so "should be kept in mind."

Speaking to his parliament's foreign affairs committee, the French foreign minister said: "There's no point recognizing the Palestinian state on our own. It must be done together," AFP reported.

"Personally we're not there yet," he said, but added, "I think that it's a possibility that should be kept in mind."

Earlier this month, Britain announced that it was upgrading the status of the Palestinian Authority's delegation in London, although that too fell short of recognition.

The move meant that the current Palestinian "general delegation" office in London becomes the Palestinian mission and the head of delegation becomes known as the head of mission.

But it fell short of Britain conferring formal diplomatic status on the mission, which would imply recognizing a Palestinian state.

It followed similar moves by France, Spain and Portugal.

In January, Paraguay joined a string of South American nations in recognizing an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 Green Line.

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Ecuador all made similar proclamations in the weeks before.

Chile and Peru also recognized a sovereign Palestine. But they said the border issue must be worked out between Israelis and Palestinians.

Earlier in the week, Ireland upgraded its relations with the Palestinian Authority, but did not go so far as to recognize a Palestinian state. The move was slammed by Israeli officials.