Talks to start on British recognition of state of Palestine

Meetings come after UK foreign secretary David Lammy suspends trade talks with Israel

Talks at official level will start on Friday about the possibility of the recognition of the state of Palestine in the context of a UN-sponsored conference in New York starting on 17 June.

A senior Arab diplomat in London said:“If you asked me a fortnight ago if there will be wider recognition by western states I would have said ‘no’, but now I am not so sure.”

The meetings come after the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, suspended trade talks with Israel on Tuesday and described its refusal to lift a blockade of aid into Gaza as “abominable”.

Lammy spoke to the Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, on Wednesday about the barriers blocking aid.

The New York conference is being co-hosted by Saudi Arabia and France.

The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said this week: “We cannot leave the children of Gaza a legacy of violence and hatred. So all this must stop and that’s why we are determined to recognise a Palestinian state.”

But officials in the conference, which is being co-hosted by Saudi Arabia and France, will have to discuss the context for such a recognition. One question is whether there would need to be parallel recognition of Israel by states such as Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, something that is regarded as impossible in the absence of a clear path to a two-state solution.

Israel is adamantly opposed to a two-state solution. The new US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, in an interview in Haarezt newspaper resisted the idea, saying: “I am asking whether there truly needs to be a Palestinian state.”

One of the issue under discussion is whether recognising Palestine would have implications for companies or individuals who trade in the occupied territories.

UK ministers are not expecting to announce further measures in the near future, but neither Jordan nor the UK has ruled out using air drops as was attempted last year.

MPs are concerned that arms companies may be using the partial nature of the arms export ban imposed last September by the UK to send weaponry to Israel for use in Gaza, in breach of an undertaking by ministers.